








* .to ^ 






*£ 



V' * 



.$ 



£%, 



***. ^ 









*o 









< 



o N 












s* %: 






x ^. 



C> 












V 



/ ' *t C' 






rfc 



o v 



^ 












,\V <p„ 



4- ^? 



. 






> 














"oo' 






% 



4 



2 



w 



THE THREE GROATS. 



s 



THE THREE GROATS 



TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN 



(LI TRE GIULI) 

G. B.'CASTI. 

n 



WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR 

AND 

SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS OTHER WORKS. 

A NEW EDITION. 
WITH NUMISMATIC NOTES. 



by M. MONTAGU. 



" A Dun, 
' Horrible Monster ! hated by Gods and Men, 
'■ To my aerial citadel ascends." Philips. 



LONDON. 



M.DCCC.XLI. 






rt\ 



,£4Z3? 



t. 



i>7? 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE PUBLIC. 



MY DKAR PUBLIC I 



Albeit without permission, I dedicate my 
Book to you. It is a scurvy Book as to " volume," 
I know, and little worth acceptance : but you are, 
it is acknowledged on all hands, a " judicious Pub- 
lic," and will not estimate merit by dimensions: 
had I not been assured of this, I would have pre- 
sented it to you in Quarto. You are moreover a 
" reading Public ;" and will therefor look into a 
Work that is dedicated to you, which an individual 
might not think it incumbent on him to do : an 
additional reason for chusing you as my patron. 
Besides which I live in a garret : how therefor 
can I know any body in the nether world suffici- 
ently well to laud the talents and virtues they 



vi TO THE PUBLIC. 

would naturally possess in that character; whereas, 
yours being already established, I have only to 
appeal to yourselves for an account of them, thus 
reciprocally sparing our blushes. 

This is intended in all seriousness : but should it 

excite a smile, here on the threshold as it were 

of our acquaintance, I shall hail it as a favourable 
augury of improvement as we advance to the 
M medias res" 1 of our subject ; for it is altogether of 
a cachinnatory nature, and should be taken up 
only icith congenial feelings. 

But the Three Groats has a higher claim to 
your notice, however it is but a lean Octavo and 
a Translation to boot : it has a large view to the 
commercial embarrassments under which you at 
times unhappily suffer ; and, without going into 
abstruse speculations on political economy, it enters 
practically in the matter of finance, with especial 
reference to the case of Debtor and Creditor (m 
which relation it is presumed you pretty generally 
stand one to another) recommending mutual charity 
and forbearance. 

Should in fact, in these sordid matters, subtrac- 
tion produce the usual remains of discontent on 



TO THE PUBLIC. vn 

the one hand, or on the other an indiscreet 

importunity occasion dissatisfaction, nothing is so 
likely to restore good humour if not good under- 
standing between the parties as a perusal of the 

Three Groats, which indeed may be considered a 
never-failing Bank to be drawn upon under such 
circumstances. Moreover with this in your pocket 
you can never be without money. 

Then please to accept the same 
from, 

My dear Public I 
Your ever devoted 
And most obedient 
Humble Servant. 

London. * * au 5™*-" 
April * * 1826. 



P. s. 

TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



The First Coinage of the Three Groats (alias 
Tre Giuli) having obtained so rapid a circulation 
as now, from wear and tear, to have almost entirely 
disappeared, it would surely be ungrateful in me 
not to anticipate the call of its liberal Consumers 
for a Second. 

I have accordingly here put forth a New Impres- 
sion of the same ; and request you, Oh my dear 
Public ! to continue your benevolent patronage and 
expenditure thereof, whereby you will in due time 
enable me to descend into more accessible regions 
among yourselves. 

Meanwhile accept the assurances of my 
high consideration. 

M. M. 

1841. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page 
Dedication ........ * v 



Sketch of the Life and Writings of G. B. Casti. xiii 

Burthen of the Sonnets xxxiii 

The Translator's Prologue . ,, . . .41 

The Three Groats. Sonnets 43 

The Translator's Epilogue ..... 243 

Notes 245 

Appendix 257 

Table of the Sonnets . 267 



SKETCH 



LIFE AND WRITINGS 



G. B. CASTI. 



The Poet under our notice, tho of considerable 
celebrity on the Continent of Europe, is compara- 
tively little known in this Country; which is to be 

\* It was my intention to preface this Version of the Tre 
Giuli with a biography of the Author and a review of his 
other works : but circumstances have induced me for the 
present to lay this plan aside: I had already made some 
progress in its execution, when I perceived that it would lead 
me to a much greater length than I had contemplated, and, 
instead of merely serving to usher in the present piece, 
would make it altogether of minor interest : moreover it 
would have compelled me to assume a tone of gravity not 
here well coupled with the gay, and to mingle severeness with 
what is desired should be altogether lively. Deferring there- 
for that weightier task to some other opportunity and more 
suitable place, we will here confine ourselves to just so brief 
a mention of our Poet as may suffice to put us in possession of 
the leading events of his life and productions of his Muse. 



Xiv LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 

attributed chiefly to the nature of his principal 
works, that will probably for a long time keep 
them confined to a foreign language, or at least 
obstruct their general dissemination here should 
they ever be translated into our own. 

This seems to imply a want of the merit that 
should entitle them to wear an English dress, 

which in fact wherever the defect lie is not to 

be denied : nevertheless it will only operate par- 
tially on their Author's fame, which is undoubtedly 
destined to encrease with its course adown the 
stream of time. It will be our object here to give 
it our feeble aid, where it may be done without 
any compromise of justice or propriety. 

G. B. Casti was born about 1720 : but his birth- 
place is not ascertained; neither is there any 
account of his origin nor early years. From 
boyhood he was educated for the Church at the 
collegiate seminary of Montefiascone*, where he 
made so rapid a progress as to be chosen a Belles- 

* Montefiascone is a small town in the Papal States be- 
tween Sienna and Rome. It has hitherto been noted only 
for its wine, a species of Muscadel, which most of our tourists 
have tasted and approved : henceforth it will be celebrated as 
a fount of genuine Hippocrene. 



G. B. CASTI. xv 

Lettres Professor at the age of sixteen. He subse- 
quently obtained a canon ry in the same church, 
which was the utmost of his clerical preferment : 
but he later adopted the generic title of Abbate, 
by which he continued to be known thro 
after-life; tho, on settling at Paris towards its 
close, he dropped that designation and wished it 
to be forgotten. 

Casti did not exhibit any early attachment to 
the Muses : he was turned of forty before at least 
making public any poetical effusions : the piece, 
of which a translation is here given, was his first. 
He published the Tre Giuli in 1762, and with all 
the success that might have been expected from so 
sprightly and amusing a performance: it added 
considerably to the number of his friends, and 
gave him at once a name in the poetical literature 
of Italy. Induced, as it would seem, by a distaste 
for the clerical profession, and a desire to see 
foreign countries, in 1765 he quitted Montefiascone 
altogether, to seek his fortune in some other walk 
of life. He went to Florence, where he presently 
obtained the office of Court-Poet to the Grand 
Duke Leopold. Fortune seemed now to have 
taken him at once by the hand : the Emperor 
Joseph II. coming to Florence soon afterwards, 



XVI LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 

distinguished our Laureate by his favourable notice, 
and carried him to Vienna in his suite*. Here he 
soon grew into general favour ; and was particu- 
larly noticed by the celebrated Prince Kaunitz, 
whose son he accompanied on several diplomatic 
missions, tho not in any specific character ; which 
enabled him to see most of the Courts of Europe 
under very favourable circumstances, and gratified 
the desire for travel he had so long entertained. 
Meanwhile he cultivated his poetical talents, how- 
ever not to the best advantage either for the World 
or his own reputation, for at this time he began his 
Novelle or Tales in Verse, which are of a character 
that entirely forbids their perusal to modest eyes. 
In 1778 he went to St. Petersburgh, whether alone 
or not does not appear, but at all events he was 
very flatteringly received by the Empress, whose 
civilities did not subsequently meet with that 
return she perhaps expected. During his stay here 
he composed a satirical piece, to which he gave 
the name of Poema Tartaro. It is a poem of twelve 

* In Kelly's Reminiscences, published some years ago, 
Casti is made to have become known to Joseph II. only at 
Vienna circa 1785 ; but this must be erroneous, as all the 
foreign accounts of his life coincide in referring that event 
to the date above given. 



G. B. CASTI. xvn 

cantos, in ottava rima, descriptive of the court of 
Catharine II. and its manners, but which he only 
published some years afterwards on his return to 
Vienna. This work is of small merit; neverthe- 
less it raised a terrible storm against him in the 
North, to avoid which, at the instance of Joseph 
IL, he made a visit to Constantinople, by sea, of 
which voyage a short account written by himself 
was published in Italy a few years ago. The out- 
cry having subsided, he went back to Vienna, 
where he continued under the protection of his 
imperial patron, who employed him occasionally on 
dramatic compositions* for the Court Opera, of 
which five have since been printed, all in the 
mock-heroic style. He remained there during the 
reign of his old master Leopold, who does not 
however seem to have distinguished him with any 
particular mark of favour. 

On the accession of the late Emperor Francis II. 
Casti obtained the Court-Laurel, which had been 

* One of these, the subject of which was suggested to him 
by Joseph II., " 77 Re Teodoro in Venezia" chiefly owing to 
the music of Paisello, had a great run on the Continent at the 
time of its production. Another, <( La Grotta di Trofonio," 
was brought out under some alterations at Drury Lane in 
1791. It was Casti who versified Beaumarchais's Figaro for 
the music of Mozart in 1 786. 



xvm LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 

vacant since 1 782 by the death of Metastasis In 
1796 he left Vienna altogether ; and, after remain- 
ing during the succeeding year in Italy, in 1798 he 
removed to Paris, where he finally established his 
residence. He now wholly occupied himself about 
the work to which he chiefly owes his celebrity, 

namely his Animali Parlanti* : He had begun 

it before leaving Vienna ; and in two years more 
he brought it to a conclusion f. After the publi- 
cation of that poem he turned his mind again to 
his Notelle, and put forth a new edition of the 
eighteen he had written in Germany, as abovesaid : 

* This is indeed a great performance, but unfortunately in 
some degree liable to censure for want of delicacy. It is 
called an Epic Poem, of twenty-four cantos in sesta rima, 
relating the civil revolutions that took place in the animal 
kingdom at some time anterior to the deluge not precisely 
determined. As may be supposed, it is a political satire, 
whose shafts are chiefly aimed at tyrants conquerors and 
cheats ; in other respects it breathes nothing but peace and 
good-will towards men. 

A very partial and loose version of it in English has been 
published by Mr. S. Rose. And an entire Translation by some 
other hand is said to exist in M. S.: but, except as a matter 
of curiosity, it will be no loss should this never see the light ; 
for, happily, in our favoured Country, we do not need such 
assistance : yet it cannot fail of its influence elsewhere. The 
French have a very good Prose Translation by M. Pagan el, 
and one in verse more free by L. Marechal. 

t It came out in 1802. 



G. B. CASTI. xix 

to these he now added thirty more, in the same 
vicious style ; but they were only posthumously 
printed. This work was his last : he died on the 
16th of February 1803, when, tho at an advanced 
age, appearances seemed yet to promise him 
many years of life*. 

Besides the pieces already mentioned, there has 
appeared since his death a volume of lyrical poems : 
but they are of comparatively small merit : pas- 
sion, as exhibited in the softer affections, was not 
Casti's fort; his talent lay in ridicule and an 
agreeable irony, to which he brought great learning 

sound judgment and an inexhaustible invention 

and humour : it cannot be too much regretted 
that in lighter points his taste was not of a 
more severe nature. 

* There are two engraved Portraits of Casti : tho, so little 
like each other, that one would never imagine them to be 
intended for the same person : both done at Paris, in, as it 
would appear, the latter years of his life. The one, that most 
generally seen prefixed to his Works, drawn by Appiani, 
represents him in a night-cap. And the other, where his 
his head is uncovered and he looks somewhat older, a highly- 
finished etching by his countryman and friend Rosaspina. 
The first is not an agreeable looking Portrait : But the latter 
on the contrary very much so, and with a great deal of appa- 
rent verisimilarness and identity about it ; and from this — 

likely to be the truer representation of him of the two, as it 
is in every respect much the more pleasing one : It is also 
much more scarce : Collectors will do well to procure it 
if they can. 

B2 



XX LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 

We are now to speak of the Piece before us, 
which, it is hoped, may sufficiently tell its own 
story and apologize for itself: This vindication, 
however, only refers to the English Version ; for, 
as to the Original, it may boldly invite attention 
and challenge any criticism. 

The Tre Gtiuli is a succession of Sonnets, inde- 
pendent of one another yet all forming one series, 

on the subject of a debt to the amount of that 
sum* unfortunately incurred by the Poet to a 
merciless Creditor : In these he exercises his fancy 
in all imaginable means f, either to refuse pacify 

* A Giulio (Julius) the same with the present Paulo of Italy, 
is worth ahout a Groat english. See Note to S. 164. The 
etymology and origin of this now immortal species well deserve 
to be here recorded. 

" Julius II. struck a silver coin, that was called after his 
name ; and, from its being very handsomely executed and of 
great convenience for circulation at Rome, the succeeding 
Popes continued to issue one similar, merely substituting as 
usual their own arms and name : yet, these coins continued 
to bear the names of Juliuses, as are still called those succes- 
sively struck by Leo — Clement — and others." Vincenzio 
Borghini. Dell' origine della Citta di Firenze. 

■{• Strepsiades himself was not more tormented by his 
Creditors than our poor Poet seems to have been, nor more 
ingenious in devising means to elude them. The old Atheni- 
an's burning glass however (The Clouds, A. 2.) was a hint 
not unworthy to have been taken by our Debitor. 



G. B. CASTI. XXI 

flatter entreat put off alarm or evade his 

Dun ; lamenting his misfortune and so on ; which 
he does with wonderful ingenuity, without ever 
flagging or exhausting his matter, thro the two 
hundred of which it is composed*. In a jeu- 
d^ esprit of so playful a nature, it is of little import 
whether the parties concerned be suppositious or 
not ; yet it appears to have originated in fact, as 
the Poet relates in the preface to the first edition of 
the work, from a friend of his good-humouredly 
dunning him for some trifling balance paid to his 

* The first edition of the Tre Giuli contained 216 Son- 
nets ; republications of which have appeared at different 
times since, and are generally very incorrect : but the Author 
was subsequently induced to revise the whole, and retrench 
their number to the 200 here given. The Editor of that 
(Napoli. 1814.) from which this translation is made, asserts it 
to be printed from a corrected copy in the Author's own hand. 

As, however, the Parisian Presses (from which the Conti- 
nent generally is supplied with Casti's "Works, they being for 
the most part prohibited out of France) uniformly give the 
Tre Giuli in that shape; and, as such Copies may be in the 
hands of our Readers, the Sonnets are here numbered in a 
corresponding manner for reference. 

We have also given in an Appendix the Additional Sonnets, 
whose general inferiority to the others will serve to confirm 
the statement already made of their having been purposely 
omitted by the Author : and, for a still more satisfactory cor- 
roboration, see Note 1 1 . to Sonnets 94. and 95. 



xxn LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 

debit in a country excursion*. They who have 
read the Tre Giitli in Italian will perhaps not be 
unwilling to see how it looks in an English dress : 
And for those who understand the language, but 
are not acquainted with this curiosity of it, not to 
make them take our Translation on credit, it is 
doing them a real service to refer them to the 

Original! : in one word it is delightful : nothing 

can be more lively droll and entertaining : To 

describe in detail what gives it this character 
would be to anticipate the reading itself, we will 
therefor not attempt any further analysis : but, 
unless the reader be fated with the most inflexible 
rigidity of muscle, it will be quite impossible 
for him to proceed at all without continual in- 
terruption from calls on his risitive emotions %. 

* In that most interesting of all biographies, the Life of 
the great sovereign Pope Sixtus V., there is an anecdote 
about Three Giuli, that may have occupied our author's mind. 

t In the short-lived Liberal (Vol. 2. P. 207.) there is an 
excellent account of the Tre Guili, written truly con amore. 
Here indeed it is— Si sic omnia! 

% This account may be thought exaggerated ; but at least 
it is not intentionally so. Judging from its effect on my own 
feelings, as well as from the estimation in which this little 
"Work is universally held in Italy, I may have deceived myself 
as to its merit and attributed to it a degree of laughter-stirring 



G. B. CASTI. xxm 

Why the feline race is thought to be the most 
unsusceptible of that exhilarating sensation I know 

not, but am quite sure that in familiar phrase 

the Tre Giuli would " make a Cat laugh." Nei- 
ther has the Poet altogether lost sight of what 
might ennoble the indulgence of this vulgar pro- 
pensity; for, tho he does not aim at the "miscuit 
utile dulci? as precept would here have been mis- 
placed, he mingles very aptly and agreeably with 
his badinage allusions both classical* and scientific. 

power that it will not be found to possess : Yet I would hope 
otherwise ; for I cannot think that what has given a whole 
Nation undiminished entertainment for nearly a century can 
be deficient in genuine and self-existent sources of delight : 
and, as to myself, it has lost nothing of its mirth-moving 
qualities from the first day of our acquaintance, thro reiterated 
perusals for more years than one that this Version has been 
on the anvil to the present hour. Indeed I consider this 
attempt but as a Debt, which it would be downright dishonesty 
in me not to pay. If therefor it should fail of its effect in 
some particular instances, let me hope that may be attributed 
to an unfavourable moment — or to our more foggy climate — 
or to a prejudice against the hard-hearted Creditor of the 
sum in question, or — in short — to any thing but an inherent 
want of the necessary requisites in the Poem and — more 
especially — in the Translation. 

* It has been thought better not to swell the Notes with an 
explanation of all these, as books of reference are always at 
hand, should his recollections fail the Reader. 



xxiv LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 

As some of our Readers may not have a distinct 
idea of the Sonnet, it will be well briefly to state 

that The Poem so called is one arbitrary in its 

construction while absolute in its rules : It consists 
of fourteen lines ; subdivided into two Quatrains 
or Stanzas of four lines, and two Tiercets or three- 
line Stanzas : the Quatrains are to have but two 
similar rhymes, alternate or successive, but so 
placed as neither to begin nor end with a couplet : 
the Tiercets may have two or three rhymes, at 
pleasure, arranged in any way save with a closing 
couplet. We are well aware of the schism that 
exists on this latter point, particularly among some 
" fair" Practitioners, and that we may herein be 
thought "too peremptory ." But the Muse can 
make no compromise with vice, however beautiful 

the sinner. A mere Quatorzaine a Fourteener 

indeed is a " chartered libertine." But the Sonnet 
stands upon higher ground, from which it is not 

permitted to descend : vulgo it has a character to 

lose, and therefor must never end with a rhyme. 
Time was that we ourselves were heterodox in the 
matter, as may be seen in the first coinage of these 

monies : but conviction has now reached us tho 

late, and we err no more. Of course we only speak 
here of the mechanism the form the mere body 



G. B. CASTI. xxv 

of the Poem ; on its soul its what-about we will 

not for the present touch. These are the established 
laws of the Sonnet (unalterable as those that 
governed the Medes and Persians) on which we 
will not here indulge in any commentary, content 
to exemplify them with our obedience, having 
strictly adhered to the prescribed form under the 
above modifications. 

It has been confidently said, and accordingly 
repeated by such as avoid the labour of thinking 
for themselves, that the genius of our language is 
incompatible with the Sonnet : but, to give a short 
word to this question, We venture to think that 
such a decision has been come to only by those 
who have examined it superficially or failed in 
producing evidence to the contrary: That this 
form of verse presents great difficulties is unde- 
niable ; but it is not less true that they may be 
surmounted ; and, as there are not wanting in- 
stances wherein these have been successfully over- 
come, it seems more just to impute the frequent 
failures rather to want of skill or industry than to 
any radical inaptitude of our poetical idiom. Of this 
perhaps more anon. In the mean time we hope to 
have here furnished the Amateurs of this charming 
little Poem (we trust no ^numerous class) with 
one or two not unacceptable specimens. 



xxvi LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 

It only remains to speak of our Translation, for 
which we merely lay claim to the merit of fidelity, 
conceiving that to be the chief praise of any such 
performance, and having spared no study to express 
our Author's thoughts in english words as closely 
as the respective idioms would admit : Yet, in 
exception to this general view, we hope not to be 
condemned for having in two or three instances* 
(all that seemed to require it) ventured to qualify 
his ideas, where allusions occurred that might be 
deemed irreverent, herein following St. Jerome's 
excellent precept f. This endeavour at closeness 
may serve as an excuse for the colloquial familiarity 
of our versification, at which the Reader might 
otherwise feel inclined to except. There is, how- 
ever, one great source of drollery in the Original, 
that is absolutely untranslatable in this or any 
other language, namely its being written through- 
out in versi tronchi^ or truncated verse [were not 

* Sonnets 68. 124. 125. 163. and 204. 

t "Quod malum est muta: quod bonum est prode." 

Epist: ad Ruff: 

% These are also sometimes called zoppx or lame, from their 
appearing to halt on their march. Sonnets written in this 
rhyme are called Sonetti muti : they are seldom used but on 
burlesque or humorous subjects. 



G. B. CASTI. xxvn 

the term somewhat homely nicked would express 

it perhaps with still more precision] that is — every 
line ending with a word accented on the last 
syllable, which has an effect indescribably ludicrous 
in Italian (where such are wholly excluded from 
legitimate poetry) particularly so when the sense 
corresponds to the comical effect they produce on 
the ear: it is a sort of mock-heroic in sound, or 
doggrel where burlesque exists independently of the 
sense. The only sound that might be supposed to 
cause a similar sensation in English verse is our 

" double rhyme*" (by the way a very loose term 

for what it signifies) but this only approaches it 
very remotely, and that merely on account of its 
infrequency: the versi tronchi seem, while they 
entertain the ear with a novel and odd sound, to 
surprise the mind by giving an entire sense, while 
from the abruptness of the termination it ap- 
pears to have left it incomplete : on the contrary, 
our " double rhyme"" rather prolongs the sound 



* This is in fact the verso piano or regular rhyme of the 
Italians, that in heroic verse is endecasyllabic, the final syllable 
of which being cut off" makes the tronco. 



xxvm LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 

after the sense has been received*. This little 
exposition will, we hope, soften the Reader's disap- 
pointment, should he find our Version even much 
below what our account of the Original may have 
led him to expect. Moreover, what but must 
suffer from travestiture in another tongue? To 

repeat an elegant comparison .it is like pouring off 

a perfume from one vessel into another, where, if 
ever so carefully done, its fragrance will in part 
evaporate in the transfusion. But let us hope our 

Three Groats will prove an essential oil an Eau 

de mille fleurs that may allow a few odours to 

* That the merely english Reader may understand this 
more clearly, and be able to judge for himself, we here sub- 
join an italian Sonnet in the regularly formed rhyme, for 
contrast with the first Sonnet of our Original. The Transla- 
tion is to boot. 

In our selection of this Piece Petrarch himself and there- 
for all paler stars — have been set aside ; not only because it 
is the production of a " fair" hand, but on account of its real 
intrinsic excellence. It was written by Faustina Maria, the 
beautiful and accomplished daughter of Carlo Maratti the 
painter, and wife of the poet G: B: F: Zappi; and addressed 
to a lady who had once been loved by her husband. Surely 
nothing can exceed it in tenderness and delicacy of sentiment : 
it seems impossible to succeed better in touching on so difficult 
a point. What rival could hate for a triumph so generously 
and beautifully expressed ? We only regret to have thus 
inadequately rendered so charming a composition. 



G. B. CASTI. 



xxix 






o 



O 
H 

I s 

H o 



.2 - 

'-2 Hi @ 

* a g 

Sh ~ ft 

.2^8 



- fc 



CD 



H O 



45 ^ 



^*J? !•£ 



< 



Hi 



.3 a 

•I a 



-2 > 



8 2 S 1 

ea S •£ o 

i— I OB "tt 

U c3 I "&JD 

■° .? g sp 

O S *~ T3 

•g Art « 

a ,d o 3 

§ o m h 



S o 



"S 1 «■ 



~ * a 



g 5 



& ® 

•J & 

a h 



if 

■§ a 

,2 I 

o £ 



I 

Q W > 



« ^3 

2 8 

ft O 

a -3 

® &d 

a 75 
a a 

i-5 



a * -a 
•2 ^ 1 

^ o 5 



lis 

2 ft « 
a s cs 

CO ^Jj 

So o 'J 






o *2 O 



XXX LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 



FAUSTINA MARIA ZAPPI. 
TO A LADY 

FORMERLY LOVED BY HER HUSBAND. 

Sonnet. 

Lady ! who once so charm'd my bosom's lord, 
That of your merits yet he often tells, 

And on your beauteous tresses' praise now dwells 

Now laughing lips — now talk with wisdom stor'd : 

Say when your look his answering look implor'd, 

Was he e'er mute as one who coldly feels ? 
Or mark'd you the ardent gaze that all reveals 
(As now on me) on you intensely pour'd ? 

Time was (I know it) by the radiance when 

Of your bright eyes he burn'd; and know that then... 
But ah ! I see the glow that dyes your cheek : 

You downwards cast those beaming eyes that kill : 
Speak : answer : ah ! not answer ? Nay, ne'er speak 
Hush — hush — if you would say he loves you still ! 



The Bee. 

M: S: Translations. 



G. B. CASTI. xxxi 

evanesce, with abundance still remaining agreeably 

to stimulate the sense, and above all — to promote 

the great moral end here in view of holding up 

to merited odium the obnoxious persons who con- 
sider themselves warranted in requiring reimburse- 
ment of advances from those oppressed subjects 
whose want of "effects" may well justify the irri- 
tability imputed to the Genus Vatum. On mere 
practical persons it may inculcate a still more 
useful maxim " Out of debt out of danger." 



\* There can be little doubt, by the way, that the late 
issue of Groats from the Mint has been mainly owing to 
the notice drawn upon that coin by the First Publication of 
this Work. It is gratifying to see Public Opinion thus 
exerting a wholesome influence on the measures of Govern- 
ment, especially in money matters. Vox Populi etc. 






BURTHEN OF THE SONNETS. 



Sonnet 

1. The Poet opens his subject. 

2. Compelled to sing his debt, he compares himself to Homer. 

3. Invokes his Muse, rejecting fiction and fable. 

4. Song elicited from him by his Dun thro collision. . 

5. Change in his poetic themes : appeals to Horace. 

6. Hopes favour from novelty, if nothing else. 

7. Says the whole world cannot match his Dun. . 

8. Compares his Dun and himself to musical instruments. . 

9. In distress, he deprecates all charity from his Dun. . 

10. Declares he'll make his Dun hang himself. 

11. Complains of being perpetually haunted by him. 

12. Continues his complaint, requesting his Dun to leave him. 

13. Thinks his Dun would pursue him even to the moon. 

14. Determines to expatriate himself, tho sure of being tracked 

and followed every where by him. .... 

15. Supposes his Dun is drawn to him by attraction. 

16. Wishes to be relieved of his torments, like Orestes. . 

17. Quits the town — but is compelled by his Dun to return. . 

18. The Tiber desires him to sing about his Dun. . 

19. His Dun goes on a journey, which greatly rejoices him. 

20. Prays for fine weather, to let his Dun get a good way off—then 

that storms and hurricanes may come down upon him. 157 ... 62 

c 



Paris 




Edit: 


Page 


1 . 


.. 43 


2 . 


.. 44 


3. 


.. 45 


4 . 


..46 


5 . 


..47 


6 . 


. 48 


144 . 


. 49 


145 . 


. 50 


147. 


. 51 


148 . 


. 52 


149 . 


. 53 


150 . 


. 54 


151 . 


. 55 


152 . 


. 56 


146 .. 


• 57 


153 . 


. 58 


154 .. 


. 59 


155 . 


. 60 


156 . 


. 61 



XXXIV 



BURTHEN OF THE SONNETS. 



Sonnet 

21 . Wishes his Dun may be taken by the Turks. 

22. Compares himself to a besieged town. 

23. Receives a dunning letter from his Creditor. 

24. Says his Creditor's letter is arsenic to him. 

25. Likens himself to a truant schoolboy. 

26. Compares his circumstances to those of Priam. 

27. Cautions persons against such a Creditor as his. 

28. The Muse is excited to sing by his Dun's importunities. 

29. Being wont formerly to boast of his stoicalness, says that 

his debt has now quite changed his character. 

30. Complains not of his debt but his Dun. 

31. Supposes his Creditor may dun him mechanically. 

32. Tells him that he is a " dunning machine." 

33. Relates how he contracted his debt. ..... 

34. Says his debt absorbs every other thought. 

35. Enumerates the evils of life — consummated by debt. 

36. Envies a child_for having no Creditor 

37. Sings—seeing it is in vain to grieve. ..... 

38. Laments he is not a bird — that he might fly off. 

39. Promises his Dun he'll pay him— when he has money. 

40. Wishes he had Gyges's ring, to make himself invisible to him. 

41. Accounts for his Dun's perseverance against him. 

42. Cares nothing about foreign news, but only about his debt. 

43. Quotes Menenius and the Plebeians of Rome. . 

44. Thinks, if he had any children, they would resemble his 

Dun, from his being perpetually haunted by him. . 

45. His Dun appears to him in a dream. . 

46. Reasons with his Creditor on the uselessness of dunning him. 

47. Regrets there is not a periodical extinction of debt. . 

48. Compares his debt to some excruciating pain. 

49. Deplores the interminable plague of his Dun. 

50. Says his debt haunts his imagination everywhere. 

51. Complains of being dunned by the echo of his own voice. . 

52. Compares his debt to the Perpetual Motion. 

53. Says that he entered on his grand climacteric the day his 

Creditor lent him the Three Groats. 

54. Implores Oblivion to let him forget his debt. 

55. Deprecates sleep, if accompanied with dreams, . 



Paris 




Edit: 


Page 


158 .. 


. 63 


159 . 


. 64 


160 . 


. 65 


161 . 


. 66 


162 . 


. 67 


164 . 


. 68 


7- 


. 69 


8 . 


. 70 


9 . 


- 71 


12 . 


. 72 


11 . 


.. 73 


10. 


. 74 


13. 


.. 75 


14 . 


.. 76 


15 . 


.. 77 


16. 


.. 78 


17. 


.. 79 


18. 


.. 80 


19 . 


.. 81 


. 20 . 


.. 82 


21 . 


.. 83 


22 . 


.. 84 


23 . 


.. 85 


24 . 


.. 86 


26 . 


.. 87 


25 . 


.. 88 


27. 


.. 89 


28 


.. 90 


29 


.. 91 


30 


.. 92 


31 


.. 93 


. 32 


.. 94 


33 


.. 95 


34 


.. 96 


. 35 


.. 97 



BURTHEN OF THE SONNETS. 



XXXV 



Sonnet 

56. Compares himself to a Mariner dreaming of storms. . 

57. Accounts for his constantly dreaming of his Dun. 

58. Explains the pre-occupation of his brain by his debt. . 

59. Complains of the constant presence of his Dun. 

60. Wishes he could get a keg of Lethe's water for him. . 

61. Laments the "good old times" previous to the existence of 

Duns, Bailiffs, Writs, and I. 0. Us 

62. Says nothing in the World can let him forget his debt. 

63. Anticipates the recollection of his debt in old age. 

64. Desires a Painter to take his Creditor's picture. . 

65. Says the Hungarian soldiers did not frighten him so much. 

66. Complains that he uses him worse than would a Pirate. 

67. Says that he is more inflexible than the Seasons. 

68. Desires he will have done teasing him, as he has no money. 

69. Thinks that his Dun can wind him a mile or two off. 

70. Says his Dun continues to worry him all the same, tho the 

world is evidently drawing near its end. 

71. Tells him that " Charity begins at home," so he must wait. 

72. Says that his debt, tho in itself small, is grown enormous, 

from his Creditor's always dunning him for it. 

73. He cannot possibly avoid his Dun in so small a town. . 

74. His friend Ergastes's letter gives him unwonted comfort. 

75. His health is excellent, but his debt makes him very ill. 

76. Declares that he will fly the Country, to avoid his Dun. 
77- Thinks that the climate operates upon Creditors. 

78. Says his own Creditor is pre-eminent among them all. 

79. Asks a friend for some logical argument against his Dun. . 

80. Desires the same to send him Three Groats — post-paid. 

81. Tells his friend that the ridding him of his debt would be 

an act of supreme virtue on his part. .... 

82. He buys a ticket in the lottery, but it turns up a blank. 

83. Ill-luck attends him again ; but he has done all he can. 

84. Regrets there is no truth in the Black Art, to pay his debt. 

85. Is convinced he draws his Creditor to him by attraction. 

86. Desires the solution of this phenomenon, as there is no 

affinity whatever between them — but the contrary. 

87. Says the Three Groats offers the only possible explanation. 

88. Thinks the Devil tells his Dun where to find him. . . 

c 



Paris 




Edit: 


Page 


36. 


. 98 


37. 


. 99 


38 . 


. 100 


39 . 


.101 


40 . 


. 102 


41 . 


. 103 


42 . 


. 104 


43 . 


. 105 


44 . 


. 106 


45 . 


. 107 


46 . 


. 108 


47 • 


. 109 


48 . 


. 110 


49 . 


. Ill 


50 . 


. 112 


51 . 


. 113 


52 . 


. 114 


80 . 


. 115 


77 i. 


. 116 


67- 


. 117 


68 .. 


. 118 


69 .. 


. 119 


70.. 


. 120 


71 .. 


. 121 


72.. 


. 122 


61 .. 


. 123 


62 .. 


. 124 


63 .. 


. 125 


64 .. 


. 126 


53 .. 


. 127 


54 .. 


. 128 


55 .. 


129 


56 .. 


130 



xxxvi BURTHEN OF THE SONNETS. 

Paris 
Sonnet Edit: Page 

89. Declares his Dun is ubiquitous in his pursuit of him. . 57 ... 131 

90 Says that his Dun frightens him, as the sight of the hangman 

does the condemned felon. ..... 

91. Declares that his Dun plagues him alike at all seasons. 

92. Tells him he is a most faithful — but plaguy Dun. 

93. Says that people little guess the cause of his sadness. 

94. Desires his friends to prove themselves so by paying his debt. 66 

95. Reminds them of the antient custom on such occasions. . 

96. He can solve no question of his Dun's — but about his debt. 

97. Misleads him by an unusual appearance of expense. 

98. Thinks that money has some affinity with the blood. 

99. He can cure himself of every disease but his debt. . 

100. Having escaped from his Dun, every noise alarms him. . 

101. Imagines the surprise of people at the Pole, who should 

hear a voice dunning them when it thaws. . 

102. Thinks his lot the hardest of all mankind's. 

103. Declares as he has no money. his Dun shall never get it. 

104. Thinks, if he had wings to fly, his Dun would follow him. 

105. Says, the poorer he is the more his Dun worries him. 

106. Compares his debt to Paris's mischievous golden apple. . 

107. Thinks him a highly-gifted man who can refuse his Dun. 

108. Deprecates the stocks and stones learning to dun him. 

109. Says he is become case-hardened against his Dun. . 

110. Laments his Dun's eccentrical as frequent recurrence. . 

111. Tells him he would bear his debt better if less plagued for it. 

112. Says he is grown insensible to his importunities. 

1 13. Tells how his Dim attacks him when off his guard. 

114. He vows a thanks-offering to Heaven if he can 'scape him. 

115. Tells him his persecution is bad policy as well as cruel. 

116. Some music he hears makes him forgetful of his debt. 

117. No creature is ever so frightened as he at his Dun. 

1 1 8. Says his Creditor's visits have only his money in view. 

119. Thinks "Platonic Love" is like the payment of his debt. 

120. Tells his Dim that no annoyances can be compared to him. 

121. All that he desires of Heaven is riddance of his Dun. . 

122. Wishes he could find the Philosopher's stone— to pay his debt. 102 

123. The importunities of his Dun have occasioned his song. 



58 . 


. 132 


59 . 


. 133 


60 . 


. 134 


65 . 


. 135 


t. 66 . 


. 136 


79. 


. 137 


68 . 


. 138 


73. 


. 139 


74. 


. 140 


75. 


. 141 


76. 


. 142 


81 . 


. 143 


82 . 


. 144 


83 . 


. 145 


84 . 


. 146 


89 . 


. 147 


90 . 


. 148 


91 . 


. 149 


92 . 


. 150 


85 . 


. 151 


86 . 


. 152 


87. 


. 153 


88 . 


. 154 


93. 


. 155 


94.. 


. 156 


95 . 


. 157 


96 . 


. 158 


97- 


. 159 


98 .. 


. 160 


99 .. 


. 161 


100.. 


. 162 


101 .. 


. 163 


102 .. 


. 164 


103 .. 


. 165 



Ill . 


.. 173 


112 . 


.. 174 


113 


. 175 


114 .. 


. 176 


115 .. 


• 177 



BURTHEN OF THE SONNETS. xxxvil 

Paris 
Sonnet Edit: Page 

124. Thinks there were no Duns in Mahomet's time, as he has 

not mentioned them to be cursed in the Koran. . . 104 ... 166 

125. Relates a frightful dream he has had. .... 105 ... 167 

126. Declares he'll turn hermit, and always deny himself to his Dun. 106 ... 16 

127. Finds a proof of the Soul's immortality in his being dunned. 107 ... 169 

128. Says his Language should be called the Tongue of " no-" 108 ... 170 

129. Says his Dun perseveres at impossibilities with him. . 109 ... 171 

130. Wishes his Dun could have the gold-transmuting power 

of Midas, so not to plague him any longer. . . . 110 ... 172 

131. Says the Quadrature of the Circle may be found, but never 

by any computation money on him 

132. "Wishes he had Astolfo's horn, to drive his Dun away. 

133. Deplores the inefficacy of learning art — science etc., all 

being equally in vain to pay his debt 

134. Says his Dun is learning French, to overreach him in that. 

135. Thinks he would continue to dun him, tho ever so rich. . 

136. Says that all diseases may be relieved, but not his debt 

that being incurable and aggravated by his Dun. . . 117 ... 178 

137. Supposes the hypothesis that his Dun's importunity is an 

" innate quality" and constitutional in him. . 

138. Consoles himself that he can't be arrested for his debt. 

139. Tells his Dun to despair of ever recovering his money. . 

1 40. Engaging his Dun in battle he overcomes him by flight. 

141. Shows how his Dun's importunities rebound against himself. 

142. Says he can now from habit listen to his Dun without fear. 122 

143. Thinks the Grecian Stoics, with all their fortitude, could 

never have put up with such a Creditor as his. 

144. Envies Cicero his talent of confounding his. Creditors. 

145. Compares his brain to a volcano of verse ignited to explo- 

sion by the contact of his debt 125 ... 187 

146. Says he'll go and conceal himself from his Dun in some 

solitude, yet is doubtful of escaping him. . . . 126 ... 188 
147- Complains that it is in vain for him to endeavour to avoid 
his Dun, being obliged to live in the same Town. 

148. Sees the likeness of his Dun in a statue at the Campidoglio. 

149. Threatens never to pay his debt ; because every body 

knows it, so now it is indifferent to him. 

150. Asks who can wonder that he refuses to pay his Dun. 



118. 


.. 179 


119 . 


.. 180 


120 . 


.. 181 


121 . 


. 182 


116 .. 


. 183 


122 .. 


. 184 


123 .. 


. 185 


124 .. 


. 186 



127 . 


.. 189 


128 . 


.. 190 


129 .. 


. 191 


130 . 


. 192 



xxxvm BURTHEN OF THE SONNETS. 

Paris 
Sonnet Edit: Page 

151. Says his debt has made him callous against every possible 

misfortune; so now he only laughs at it. . 131 ... 193 

152. Relates how Fate delivered him over to his Dun. . . 132 ... 194 

153. Tells his Dun that he is less manageable than a dog. . 133 .. 195 

154. Says that the favour he did him by lending him money 

has turned out to be an injury. ..... 134 ... 196 

155. Tells him he was about to pay him, in a coin that is just 

called in ; so he must now wait for it. . . . . 135 ... 197 

156. Says his Creditor is generally extremely dilatory and slow 

in every thing — except dunning him. . 

157. Thinks the number 3 inauspicious to him. 

158. Tells his Creditor to pay his own debts before dunning him. 138 

1 59. Is resolved not to pay him — because he has no money. 

160. Explains the reason of his insolvency to be the want of 

cash : for otherwise he admits the debt. 

161. He doubts which of them is most tired of the contention. 

162. Determines it shall never be said that he gave it up. 

163. Proposes peace to his Dun, but fears it will be in vain. 

164. Tells him he will pay him in some old coin he has found. 

165. Having no money, he proposes to pay him with Sonnets, 

166. Gives up all hopes of peace, his Dun having made his will 

and transferred the debt over to his heir. 

1 67. Tells his Mistress that his debt has driven out his love. . 

168. Requests her to advance him the money to pay his debt. 

169. Promises her a young bear he has, having nothing better. 

170. Laments that he must pursue her as his Dun pursues him. 

171 . Doubts which gives him most concern his love or his debt. 

172. Apostrophizes his Mistress, on seeing some flowers. 

173. Tells his Dun he has substituted himself for his Mistress. 

174. Says that, if she be cruel, his song will turn upon his debt. 

175. Tells her that he hates her jealous Cousin as much as his 

Dun, and therefor won't associate with him. 

176. Says he forgets her when out of sight — but never his debt. 

177. Promises to sing her, as soon as he gets rid of that. 

178. Makes an appointment with her; as the weather is threat- 

ening, which will probably keep his Dun at home. 

179. Tells his friend how he will sing his Dun at the fete. 

1 80. Implores Fate to give him one day's respite from his Dun. 



136 . 


.. 198 


137. 


.. 199 


138 . 


.. 200 


139 . 


.. 201 


140 . 


.. 202 


141 . 


.. 203 


142 . 


.. 204 


143 . 


.. 205 


163 . 


.. 206 


165 . 


.. 207 


>ame. 


.. 208 


» 


.. 209 


» • 


.. 210 


» • 


.. 211 


» • 


.. 212 


» • 


.. 213 


« • 


.. 214 


» • 


.. 215 


>j • 


.. 216 


5> • 


.. 217 


)i • 


. 218 


)1 • 


.. 219 


» • 


.. 220 


)) 


.. 221 


JJ • 


.. 222 



BURTHEN OF THE SONNETS. 

Sonnet 

181. Resolves to drown all his cares in wine. .... 

1 82. Invokes Bacchus, with whose help he shall defy his Dun. 

183. Elated with wine, he sets him at defiance. 

184. Arranges how to crown his Dun King of plaguy fellows. 

185. Exorcises the spot where his Dun lent him the money. 

186. Invites his Mistress to go upon the water — fearless of Duns. 

187. Prays for foul weather, that his Dun may stay at home. . 

188. Mourns that Spring returns in vain for him, on account of 

his Dun's importunities for payment. .... 

189. Traces his misfortunes to the origin of money. 

190. Tells his Creditor that — his laconic refusals are at least 

proofs of his sincerity, if nothing better. 

191. Keeps his Dun at bay, by amusing him with Sonnets. 

192. Tells him he shall be immortalized by dunning. 

193. Says that no feats would have given his name such celebrity 

194. Accounts for his subject by its being uppermost in his mind. 

195. Tells his Dun that but for his song he would be forgotten. 

196. Desires his Dun to think himself about his debt. 
197- Says that his poetic vein is useless, as it will not pay his debt. Same 

198. Describes the personal appearance of his Creditor. . 

199. Cautions persons against mistaking his motives for singing 

200. Relates how Apollo desired him to have done. 

For The Additional Sonnets see Appendix. 



Paris 




Edit: 


Page 


Same.. 


,. 223 


» •■ 


,. 224 


a • 


,. 225 


a • 


. 226 


a •• 


. 227 


a " 


.228 


a •• 


. 229 


a • 


. 230 


a •■ 


. 231 


a •■ 


,. 232 


M • 


,. 233 


it • 


,. 234 


194 . 


.. 235 


195 .. 


. 236 


196.. 


. 237 


193 .. 


. 238 


Same.. 


. 239 


it - 


. 240 


a •■ 


. 241 


a •• 


. 242 



PREFATORY SONNET : 

BY WAY OP 

PROLOGUE. 

Come ye, with poverty's besetting sin, 

All ye, that are in debt, and can't defray ! 

A nd ye, that love a laughter-moving lay ! 

The generous Muse relieves your wants herein. 
Insolvent tho ye be of groat or grin, 

Here shall ye find a wherewithal to pay; 

Here raise your mirth or raise the wind ye may; 

In either case assured to laugh or win. 
Sure nobler theme than this was never sung ! 

Three groats here are, from Italy that come, 

Henceforth made current coin in England's tongue. 
Her Splendid Shilling 's not a greater sum : 

Thereon are full two hundred changes rung : 

But read, and ye'll allow they're worth a plum. 



THE THREE GROATS 



SONNETS, 
I. 1*. 



Let others sing his pious deeds and bold — 

And wars Eneas did in Latium wage, 

Whence empire and the city rose, of old, 
That to the World gave laws in after age : 

The feats of mighty Kings let these unfold ; 
A pleasing face, or beauty, those engage ; 
Far other tales must by the Muse be told : 
Nor dreadful Mars nor Love employs her page. 

This is the subject matter of my lay 

Chrysophilus one time Three Groats me lent, 
And for them ask'd me a hundred times a day: 

He kept on asking, and I would not pay: 
And this importunate Dun 'tis my intent 
Herein in various fashion to display. 

* These Second Numbers refer to the Paris Editions. 



44 THE THREE GROATS. 



II. 2. 

If in my youth, ambitious then of fame, 
In my more verdant and vivacious age, 
The deeds and virtues did my song engage 
Of heroes worthy an eternal name, 

My thoughts and mood henceforth no more the same, 
No longer let me gravely act the sage, 
But sing the woes my Dun inflicts (to assuage) 
From that day he my Creditor became. 

Thus Greece's mighty Bard : when, justly prized, 
(If to great instances one may compare 
Things that to such great types unequal are) 

The feats in Phrygia that Achilles wrought 

He'd and Ulysses' name immortalized, 

He sung about the Frogs and Mice who fought. 



THE THREE GROATS. 45 



III. 3. 



Hence, dreams or fables, hence ! Others before 

Have sung, while poesy their bosoms warmed, 
How Jove, in bull and golden shower transformed, 
Agenor and Acrisius wrong'd of yore ; 

And far-famed Grecian youth, from Colchis' shore 
That brought the golden fleece iEetes charmed ; 
And regal bird, tho angry Juno stormed, 
That erst the beauteous boy to Olympus bore. 

Armida's or Alcinous' fabled tales 

Others have told : and honour waits the one 
That with the greatest falsehood truth o'erveils. 

Hence, dreams or fables, hence ! whoever quotes : 

Meanwhile the Muse relates in artless tone 
The genuine story of the Triple Groats. 



46 THE THREE GROATS. 



IV. 4. 



Who would believe that hard and arid stone, 
Which hath no principle of light nor heat, 
Doth in itself inactive fires secrete 
With luminous existence of their own ! 

For if__against another one be thrown, 

Or joining with the steel you sharply beat, 

A stream of sparks burst forth whene'er they meet, 

At each concussion, from the shock alone. 

With his entreaties thus, by many a stroke, 
Within my breast the dormant seeds of song 
The Creditor of the Three Groats awoke ; 

Whence soon a flame ignited clear and bright, 
Till, burning round him vividly and strong, 
Poetic Farthing-candles it did light. 



THE THREE GROATS. 47 



V. 5. 



Of yore an ardent thirst for noble fame 

Within my heart I felt, whence glorious things 
I hoped might come to pass, that on the wings 
Of Time one day should tell the World my name ; 

And wishM, my bosom warm'd with generous flame, 

To sing of arms of Warriors Chiefs and Kings : 

When this to other themes attuned my strings, 
And made me for Three Groats divert the same. 

But if such great designs did then inspire 

With wish for glory, others move me now 

Works that can hope no glory to acquire. 

Oh here, my Horace ! help me : while about 
An Amphora, they were, say for me how__ 
Turning the lathe a Pipkin issues out? 



48 THE THREE GROATS. 



VI. 6. 

Without that pleasing and sublimest gift, 
Which Nature but to few and seldom gave, 
How shall I to that lofty sphere me lift, 
Where noble souls alone to soar can crave ? 

Hence, if its bounties with penurious thrift 

Heaven hath endowed me with, nor wings I have 
Wherewith by flight to rise, I must make shift 
To tune as best I may my present stave. 

And if, since there the World run most, where are 

The most ingenious whimsies false altho 1 , 

Nor Truth will naked show herself and bare, 

Thence have I hoped, tho nothing else than these 
Should recommend the Triple Groats, still so 
Perhaps the charms of novelty may please. 



THE THREE GROATS. 49 



VII. 144. 



'Mong those whose skin is by the Sun embrown'd 

From frozen Lapland take thy devious way; 

And thence, where Phoebus runs his nightly round, 

Pursue, till where he sheds his morning ray : 
Deep in antiquity's abyss profound 

With eager eyes explore ; and then survey 

Thro every former age's ample bound, 

Till gradually thou reach to our own day: 
For their relation of the various things 

Perform'd by Chieftains Emperors and Kings, 

To history or to fable next advert : 
And, Dun of the Three Groats ! wherever now 

Or then one shall not find, I dare assert, 

So troublesome a character as thou. 



50 THE THREE GROATS. 



VIII. 143. 

My Dun has surely nought to wonder at, 
If, to his summons the Three Groats to pay, 

He always hears from me an answer that 

Is of the self-same kind and quality : 

Like one, who constantly shall sound A flat 
Upon the hautboy or the organ, may 
Expect the instrument to utter what 
Will be the note that answers to flat A . 

Thus every time my Creditor this way 
One similar question makes me undergo, 
He hears one similar tone, in answering notes 

Yet still I don't repay him his Three Groats : 
And, should he ask me a hundred times a day, 
He'd hear a hundred times the self same " NO. 



THE THREE GROATS. 51 



IX. 147. 



Should Heaven afflict me with the most severe 
And dire adversities that could oppress, 
And that obliged to beg my bread I were 
About the town barefoot and breechesless ; 

Oh Creditor of the Three Groats ! I swear 

That with indomitable cheerfulness, 
Rather than ask an alms of thee, I'd bear 
The most extreme necessity's excess. 

For I have known too long, from all the smart 
My debt continues to inflict, of yore, 
What an unfeeling Creditor thou art : 

Since every one must in his mind retain 
His origin of ills : and, where before 
The Ass has stumbled, he'll not trip again. 



d 2 



52 THE THREE GROATS. 



X. 148. 



IVe told thee good an hundred times and more 

This same irrefutable truth, which is 

That with me since from some time past to this 
The race of coppers is extinct and o'er : 

Yet, notwithstanding that, thou wilt me bore 
With thy insufferable importunities, 
And pityless dost no occasion miss 
Those villainous Three Groats to dun me for. 

Perhaps thou wouldest drive me to despair, 

And make me hang myself, that thou might'st spy 
With halter round my neck depend in air ? 

But in like manner thee I'll mortify: 

For now I'll never pay thee, that I swear : 

So rather thou shalt hang thyself, not I. 



THE THREE GROATS. 53 



XI. 149. 



Whether of lovely Nymphs I be the guest, 
That entertain me with their playful talk ; 
Or take unseen my solitary walk, 
Where noise nor tumult enters to molest ; 

When Orient hails the Sun, or in the West 
When Ocean waters quench his fiery track, 
Those Triple Groats still haunt my mind, and balk 
My heart continually of joy and rest : 

His hateful likeness, who has ever been 
The troubler of my peace and evil star, 
Is always in my eyes as if there seen ; 

A likeness that more horror dread and evil 
Still causes, and to me is uglier far, 
Than if 'twere Asmodeus or the Devil. 



54 THE THREE GROATS. 



XII. 150. 

Let folk say what they will : here is the man — 
My dear Chrysophilus, and in good state 

Of bodily health still fresh and fat as late, 

And self-same humour as it always ran : 

Who want to find him night or day they can r 

By coming where I be, they're sure of that ; 

Who has no other business to be at 

Than his Three Groats his never-ceasing plan. 

But hold thy tongue this once, in pity's sake : 
For, 'pon my soul ! thou'rt such a horrid bore, 
Thou'dst dry up Azoph or the Nubian lake. 

This once do get thee from me far away; 
Nor ever come back hither any more 
To pester me thy curs'd Three Groats to pay. 



THE THREE GROATS. 55 



XIII. 151, 



I do protest I cannot tell if from 

This World to that a span may intervene : 
I don't assert, nor think, whate'er the room, 
There's a plurality of Worlds terrene ; 

Nor if a mortal race there be, to whom 
Our father Adam has not parent been, 
With different laws to regulate their doom : 
Nor if the Moon be peopled do I ween : 

But, were it true, I'd. covet to explore 
The skies, a residence aloft to obtain, 
Where I might hope to never see thee more : 

Yet should I fear that, travelling thro the air, 

In search of me, in Father Daniel's train, (1) 
Thou'dst come one day to find me out up there. 

* * For Notes see the End. 



56 THE THREE GROATS. 



XIV. 152. 

Since that the air, which I inhale this land on, 

Doth make me sad low-spirited — and weak ; 

And since my Dun, whatever spot I stand on, 
With cruel wrongs his spite doth on me wreak ; 

Most certainly will I forthwith abandon 
My parent soil and native city eke, 

To find "neath other skies__some other strand on 

That peace which here my heart would vainly seek. 

But should I quit, so as to leave no trace 

By which the Three Groats' Creditor, foiPd there, 
Should know where I had gone, I nothing doubt, 

That, should he chance to learn my hiding place, 
In Calicut or China tho I were, 
He'd straight post-horses take and find me out. 



THE THREE GROATS. 57 



XV. 146. 



The gad-fly does not such a plague become, 
What time the days are hottest in the year, 
Nor is the hornet half so troublesome, 
As is my Creditor about mine ear : 

If grateful showers descend from skies of gloom, 
The gad-fly and the hornet disappear ; 
But never season varied in my doom, 
To make my dunning Creditor forbear. 

Perhaps, as by the gravitating power — 

Whence bodies tend from their own nature lower, 
Or by centripetal cohesion's laws, 

So, by a natural affinity 

(Or by attraction : who can tell the cause ?) 
Thou tendest, Oh Chrysophilus ! to me. 



58 THE THREE GROATS. 



XVI. 153. 

As erst Orestes, who, when he had slain 
The adulterer and his guilty mother both, 
And so atrociously avenged that stain — 
His murder'd father and her broken troth, 

In exile wander'd, dragging in his train 

The murderous Furies wheresoe'er his path, 

So I, where'er I go, the bitter pain 

Must bear my heart imprinted on it hath. 

At length if, after all he underwent, 

The Goddess (whom the Scythians wont adore 
With human blood) towards him did relent, 

Why cannot also I some means explore, 

And virtue charm or remedy invent, 

Whence those Three Groats may sorrow me no more. 






THE THREE GROATS. 59 



XVII. 154. 



" Now, Friends ! I bid you all a kind farewell ; 
" While far my steps I bend, reluctant tho: 
" Farewell, delightful Nymphs ! for I must go ; 
" Nor 'mong you more of me shall any tell. 

" To this distressing step doth me compel 

" The Triple Groats that fatal debt I owe : 

" But nor the first I am, nor last, that so 
" For debt went into banishment to dwell." 

So saying, forth from the Town I sallied out : 
But sad my Creditor appear'd behind, 
And said ' I'll go with you, an you permit.' 

Then sorrowful again I turn'd about, 

Exclaiming, " Is it then by Heaven design'd 

" That of this man I never shall be quit 2" 



60 THE THREE GROATS. 



XVIII. 155. 



When father Tiber heard the noisy lays 

That here I weave, he rear'd his awful head 
From out the oozy depths, did on me gaze, 
His sceptre shook, and then as follows said 

" Here Ennius and Lucilius, in their days, 

" The Mantuan and Venusian, tuned the reed; 

" When Rome could value poesy and praise, 

" And the fine arts combined with valorous deed. 

" Since then have tuneful swans in every age, 

" With frogs commingled owls storks crows and cranes 

" These shores and city deafen'd with their strains : 

" The Fair — Love War Chiefs Kings, as subjects for, 

" And follies of the day, their songs engage : 
" There wanted yet a Three Groats' Creditor." 



THE THREE GROATS. 61 



XIX. 156. 



Oh novel and felicitous event ! 

For me most fortunate and joyful day ! — 
That fills my soul with gladness and content, 
Dispelling all my woes, and making gay: 

Chrysophilus to go from hence had meant ; 
And now all ready had made to take his way; 
His wonted jerkin to put on he went, 
And in the wardrobe his town-coat did lay : 

His boots are on with spurs he arms his heel ; 

Then with one spring upon his nag he leaps, 
And in his flanks the rowel makes him feel. 

He goes ! when joy pours o'er me in such full tide, 

As proves the mariner when on the deeps 

Dark clouds disperse and angry storms subside. 



62 THE THREE GROATS. 



XX. 157. 

Cease, angry winds ! to urge your furious fray, 
Or ere from this my Creditor be gone ; 
Let balmy zephyrs gently breathe alone, 
Like those that in fresh April softly play: 

Be mild the air, and tranquil be the day, 
Let cloudless suns him shine serenely on, 

And no adversities descend upon, 

At least till he be distant hence away: 

Be his a pleasant journey, till, as plannM, 
He from me shall be far ; then rattle down 
Hail rain and all the skies upon his crown, 

So he may ne'er come back : just as of yore, 
The envoy crow, that went to look for land 
From Noah's ark, was never heard of more. 



THE THREE GROATS. 63 



XXI. 158. 



Since that Chrysophilus is gone from this, 
And I no longer see him on my beat, 
Nor hear myself dunn'd for that cash of his, 
While thro the Town I stroll in every street, 

In freedom and security of bliss, 

Where'er I list I joyful turn my feet, 

As doth the mouse wherever the cat not is 

Go fearlessly nor cares whom it may meet. 

Oh let him ne'er come back, for goodness' sake ! 
And, should he turn his steps towards the coast, 
If in captivity the Turks should take, 

I do not wish him harm, but that, tho huff 'd he, 
So he might never here return, at most — 
I wish they'd make him Grand Vizier or Mufti. 



64 THE THREE GROATS. 



XXII. 159. 

As doth some wretched city weep and wail ; 
When hostile ranks invest her, to reduce, 
And with close siege beleaguer, and assail 
With every method they can bring in use : 

And in her as delight it doth infuse, 

If afterwards the foe's assault should fail, 
And they decamp, in vain their force or ruse, 
To bear their arms where else they may prevail 

Such was my dread my hatred and my rage, 

What time, Chrysophilus ! upon the score 

Of thy Three Groats thou didst me late engage : 

And now far from me thou canst not annoy, 

And that I see thy odious face no more, 
Such is my pleasure such my boundless joy ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 65 



XXIII. 160. 



Postman ! are any letters there for me ? 
4 Yes, one; a penny postage? Here it is. 

Let's look who writes : alas ! what do I see 

"ris from my Creditor, who writes me this 

" Get me the Three Groats ready (do not miss) 
" As soon as possible : for I shall be 
" By Sunday or Monday at latest, unremiss, 
" On horse or foot dead or alive with thee." 

Defend me, Heaven ! if, now he's far from hence, 
To plague me still he finds some new pretence, 
Just as when near, tormenting with his notes, 

And thro the post pursues me to repay: 

So, while I don't return him his Three Groats, 
He makes me pay the interest this way. 



66 THE THREE GROATS. 



XXIV. 168. 

'Tis stated there are persons who have brewed 

A liquor of such poisonous properties, 

That paper, saturated with the fluid, 
Whoever reads or even opens dies. 

Too few then are the common modes pursued, 
To abridge the scanty term our days comprise ; 
That cruelty, wherewith is Man imbued, 
New methods of destruction must devise ! 

But I may say that not atrocious less 
Nor cruel is my Creditor, whose trick 
In this last instance wounds me to the quick : 

For, while he writes to me, with menaces 
The settlement of the Three Groats to press, 
He gives me by his letter arsenic. 



THE THREE GROATS. 67 



XXV. 162. 

Hast ever seen the Father be away, 

The while his Boy doth frolicsome engage 

With those whom manners minds or equal age 

Unites together there in wanton play ? 

Then suddenly, amidst the sportive fray 

Should he appear, and mark with seeming rage, 

The Child, his Parentis anger to assuage, 
Would fly or hide, yet full of dread must stay. 

Thus I in freedom lived and glad, while nought 
My happiness disturb'd, for some time past, 
And from me far my Creditor I thought : 

And now that he comes back here to demand 
As usual his Three Groats, with fear stuck fast, 
Slinking away afraid and mute I stand. 



E 2 



68 THE THREE GROATS. 



XXVI. 164. 



Not Priam with such pleasure did exult, 
What time the Grecian army turnM away, 
A nd ambush'd 'mong impervious rocks occult, 
While Sinon took his measures to betray; 

Nor afterwards such dreadful terror felt, 

When from th' insiduous horse's womb — th' array 

Of warriors burst, and led their friends' assault, 
While fire and ruthless carnage strewM the way; 

As I, my Dun ! rejoiced to my heart's core, 
When thou didst late depart from me, as then 
I flatter' d me to never see thee more ; 

And now I prove a bitter sorrow, when 
I see thee here return, still as before, 
To pester me for the Three Groats again. 



THE THREE GROATS. 69 



XXVII. 7. 



Ye, who have heard my sorrowful lament, 
And the complaints IVe vented 'gainst my foe — 

My cruel Dun the cause of all my woe 

E'er since the day that he Three Groats me lent !. 

If never yet your bosom's calm content, 
That Fortune and your partial fate bestow, 
Has been disturb'd by any ills that flow 
From hate adversity or accident, 

Ah ! never run in debt : but, to your sorrow, 
If so compelFd, take care that first ye see 
What natured man he is from whom ye borrow : 

For, if a Dun whose worryings never cease, 

'Twill be with you as it has been with me, 

Ye'll never have another day of peace. 



70 THE THREE GROATS. 



XXVIII. 8. 

While sorrows ne'er afflicted me, and while 
I pass'd my days in happiness away, 
My Muse in silence did the hours beguile, 
Nor e'er was heard to wake the vocal lay: 

But since the Three Groats' Dun (alas the day!) 
Began to worry me, as he does still, 
IVe felt a singing itch within me sway, 
And like the Cricket (2) at noon day I shrill. 

So, while well-fitted and you duly grease, 
All smooth and silent, as if at repose, 
The wheel around its axle turns with ease : 

But when along the road it cries and creaks, 

Be sure there's something wrong, tho nothing shows, 
To cause that ever jarring noise it makes. 



THE THREE GROATS. 71 



XXIX. 9. 



I, foolishly who some time since did boast 
Of virtue in a stoical degree, 
That made me feel insensible almost 
To all misfortunes and adversity; 

By some I know not what dire influence crost, 

Am now no longer what I used to be, 

And thro a paltry debt IVe wholly lost 

My once unalterable indifferency. 

Sometimes perhaps th 1 unconquer'd lion so, 

When tiger panther he has crush'd or bear, 

Victorious in each contest with the foe, 

Should some small gad-fly settle on some part 

Where not his ear, him stinging, in despair 

To drive it off he yields and bears the smart. 



72 THE THREE GROATS. 



XXX. 12. 

That debt's an evil there can be no doubt ; 

All grant, and IVe experienced it, I'm sure : 
What then ? it is an ill that goes about ; 
And common ills, all know, admit of cure. 

So I, my debt of the Three Groats without 
Complaint would bear and thereto me inure, 
Had Heaven imposed on me some portion out 
Of that calamity we all endure. 

But, my vexatious Dun torments me so, 
My tongue cannot dissemble what I feel 
Of inward grief, but must express my wo : 

Yet 'tis not of my debt for that were vain 

(While here I make this pitiful appeal) 
But thee, Oh Creditor ! that I complain. 




THE THREE GROATS. 73 



XXXI. 11 



When there's an act one very often does, 
The organs Nature fitted to that place 
Perform their wonted task in every case 
Without volition, how one scarcely knows. 

'Tis thus that to his crib the Donkey goes ; 

That Parrots wish "Good morning;'''' and what was 
But frequency will into habit pass ; 
And that necessity from habit flows. 

With arguments no matter good or bad, 

I often go soliloquizing thus : 

Now hear the induction may from thence be had : 

By rote he asks me for his Thrice a Groat, 
(Since so my Creditor has 'custom' d us) 
By rote I answer him " I have them not." 



74 THE THREE GROATS. 



XXXII. 10. 

Since, Creditor ! you tease me thus and chase, 

And from me fain would those Three Groats exact,. 

Therein no action of the will takes place, 

But only instruments corporeal act : 
Just as the eye (to put an equal case) 

Provided that no injuries affect, 

Whatever object were before the face 

Would out of mere necessity detect. 
'Twas thus that some Philosopher achieved 

The figure that he calFd Automaton, 

Which acted by machinery of its own. 
Therefor, that I no ear to what you ask 

Will lend, against me do not feel aggrieved ; 

Since you like a machine perform your task. 



THE THREE GROATS. 75 



XXXIII. VS. 



I never shall be able to forget 

The memorable day, to me that bore 

Such bitter sorrows, when my Dun, of yore, 

Advanced me those Three Groats I owe him yet : 

Three times them slow he from his purse did get, 
Within himself recounting them, to score ; 
And thrice return'd them in ; the while for more 
Than half an hour he made me doubtful wait. 

Whether or not he gave, I cannot say; 

For grief and rage so much my mind possessM, 
It took my faculty of sight away: 

I only know that then all peace and rest 

Forsook me ; and from thence I may, unblest, 
Date all my woes up to the present day. 



76 THE THREE GROATS. 



XXXIV. 14. 

The whispering breeze that speaks in softest breath, 
The verdant hill, the cool umbrageous vale, 
The bird that spreads his pinion to the gale, 
The brook that jets with bounding leap beneath, 

And makes sweet music in its noisy fall, — 

The dance and song of laughter-loving youth, 

At times, Oh Dun ! with calm delights these sooth 
My mind, till thou coms't back to chase them all. 

Thou marr'st my every joy: nor can my thoughts 
A single moment wander "way from thee, 
But thither they return whence they but stray'd : 

So that the constant thought of the Three Groats 
Has made itself so natural to me, 
As almost to be " necessary" said. 



THE THREE GROATS. 77 



XXXV. 13. 



Man ne'er was happy yet in any stage 

Of life : a Boy he trembles at a look ; 

His freshest youth is wasted o'er a book, 
Intent on science or the learned page : 

In manhood's fervent prime new cares engage, 

With hatred now he burns now love's soft yoke ; 

Here akes and pains there some disaster's stroke, 

And growing ills that still increase with age : 

At length come Debts; and with them comes the day 
Whencefrom no hope of happiness remains : 
And thus I've led a life of varied woe ; 

Till the Three Groats' dire debt, inapt to pay, 
To all so long endured my ills and pains 
Has given the coup de grace and finishing blow. 



78 THE THREE GROATS. 



XXXVI. 16. 

Unconscious Child ! that in thine early spring 

Amusing thee dost frolic thus and play, 

Nor yet hast known corroding hatred's sting, 
Nor gnawing cares that on our quiet prey : 

O'er thy pure peacefulness its guardian wing • 
May Heaven extend, and ever lead thy way ; 
Nor thee reserve for days that sorrow bring, 
What time thy jetty locks shall turn to gray ! 

Oh happy Child ! how much I envy thee 

The calm content that Heaven gives thee heart-easing, 

And tranquil peace that my sad heart has lost ! 

But what dost think I in thee envy most? 

"Tis that thou'st no one 'bout thee always teasing, 
As for Three Groats T ever have 'bout me. 




THE THREE GROATS. 79 



XXXVII. 17. 



From far returning to his native town, 

With song the Traveller cheers his toilsome way: 
With song the thirsty Reaper cheers his own, 
Exposed howe'er beneath the burning ray: 

The Pilot sings ; tho, his rude voice to drown, 
He round him hears the furious tempest sway: 
And, sighing tho for freedom long unknown, 
The captive Bird still carols his sweet lay. 

Thus mirthful lays I sing ; tho now IVe lost 
The calm contentment I enjoy 1 d of yore, 
And wonted peace my heart no more can boast : 

And thus I mitigate my wretched lot, 

Caused by my Dun's perpetual plague and bore ; 
Since 'tis all one whether I grieve or not. 



80 THE THREE GROATS. 



XXXVIII. 18. 

What time I pensive stand some bird to view, 
That, hither bound, from Egypt coming last, 
Or the Appenines or frigorous Alps has pass'd, 
Doth rapidly thro air his way pursue, _ 

" Happy (I tell him) unto whom, as you, 

" Heaven gave such boundless liberty and vast ; 
" That has nor clime nor soil to bind him fast, 
" But takes his flight where'er it lists him do. 11 

Alas ! why cannot I perform this trick ? 
To me why's equal liberty denied, 
That here against my will must fain abide ? 

Here unavoidably by day and night 
Condemned by Fate eternally to stick, 
And have my Dun of the Three Groats in sight ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 81 



XXXIX.< 8 > 19. 



Thou askest me for money (while I've none) 

And losest time in vain, which thou might'st save : 

If thou an " I promise to pay'''' dost crave, 

I'll make no bones at all to give thee one : 
I neither grant thee nor refuse the boon ; 

Since___what one never had one never gave : 

I promise that I'll pay thee when I have ; 

And thou'rt content with my good will thereon. 
Then let's have peace : nor let me thus be bored 

For those Three Groats a hundred times a day : 

When got' — I'll give them of my own accord. 
Why wilt thou thus torment and wear me out ? 

Why worry a poor devil in this way? 

Canst not thou say__" Where nothing is there's nought"? 



82 THE THREE GROATS. 



XL. 20. 

One day, the while his flock about him grazed, 

A golden ring the shepherd Gyges found ; 

Which, when he had upon his finger placed, 

Made him invisible to all around : 
And with this ring the wicked schemes he traced 

Of all his after crimes, so much renown'd ; 

The royal bed polluted and debased, 

Usurped the throne, and made himself be crownM. 
Had I that ring I would by no means be 

So vile a rogue, nor use it, as did he, 

For any such like purposes of crime ; 
But make its virtue serve —that, when about 

He goes to hunt for me at any time, 

My Creditor should never find me out. 



THE THREE GROATS. 83 



XLI. 21. 



As, with a searching power to imbue 

With its prolific warmth, the Sun doth dart 
Its genial rays, and penetrate the heart 
Of mountains of Golconda or Peru; 

And latent matter, there which lies perdu, 
Doth clear and purge from every grosser part ; 
Whence gold and purest gems, transferr'd by art, 
On precious rings and regal crowns we view; 

Thy parching hot activity and ardour 
Doth penetrate and work into my bones, 
And make my heart already*hard still harder; 

And thence those aureate adamantine tones, 

Wherewith I utter "NO" and whose off- warder 
Makes thy Three Groats the hopelessest of loans. 



f 2 



84 THE THREE GROATS. 



XLII.w 22. 



Now that in fierce hostilities and jar 

With martial conflagration Europe burns, 

The Peasant-Hind forsakes the plough he spurns, 

Girds him with arms, and marches to the war : 

Curious of news from whether near or far, 

If arms the Muscovite each person learns, 

If sails the English fleet—or if returns, 
And what the French are at in Malabar ; 

How many horse how many foot are slain, 

If with the Pruss the British be combined, 
And if the King of France unite with Spain. 

But little or nought of this employs my thoughts : 

By day or night all that runs in my mind 

Is my confounded Dun and his Three Groats. 



THE THREE GROATS. 85 



XLIII. 23. 



What time the People, by their debts weighed down, 
From the Quirinal to the Sacred Mount 
Retired, and left the Nobles in the Town, 
(Their kings once banish'd on the same account) 

Menenius, by that apologue well-known 

O 1 th"* limbs and body, which he did recount, 
Proved that Republics can (thus clearly shown) 
Exist alone by union force's fount : 

And, of the peace then made, the abolition 

Of all their debts in toto full and free 

Was made the first and principal condition. 

And thus, my Dun ! it stands with thee as yet : 
Nor canst thou e'er return in peace with me, 
Unless thou cease to talk about my debt. 



86 THE THREE GROATS. 



XLIV. 24. 

Lover of freedom that I still have been, 

Ne'er nuptial ties have bound me to the Fair ; 

And, should no progeny my loss repair, 

'Twill do the world nor good nor harm, I ween : 

But if that yoke, on others often seen, 

(That yoke so onerous to those who bear, 

And pleasing but to them who do not wear) 

I too had borne since when my youth was green,. 

Perhaps, Chrysophilus ! that in that case 

(Thy countenance hath so much fill'd my mind) 
My Children would resemble thee in face ; 

And I should see run 'bout the house and stun me, 
Perpetuated in my proper kind, 
So many little Creditors, to dun me ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 87 



XLV. 26. 



I dreamt to be, a night ago or two, 
Within a place delightful to behold : 
Were songs, and games, and dances manifold, 
With harps and flutes and hautboys playing to ; 

Fair Nymphs and youthful, courting me to woo, 
In playful talk did converse with me hold : 

So fair a place the world doth not unfold, 

The Emperor has not sweets that can outdo. 

While there I stood, enjoying the lovely^sight, 

Lo suddenly my Creditor appears, 

And stands before me, crying in my ears, 

Dispelling this fair dream ! What ! stand or go, 

Whether I sleep or wake, by day or night, 

Must this confounded fellow plague me so ? 



88 THE THREE GROATS. 



XLVL 25. 

Good Creditor ! do tell me what's the use 

To pester me for those Three Groats in vain 

And still importunate, tho I refuse, 

To storm and fume like any crow or crane ? 

Then, prithee, now have done : nor longer thus 
Keep dunning me, with loss of time and pain ; 
Seeing hitherto for nothing all thy fuss 
And clamour have avaiFd to either's gain : 

Thy worrying vails me nought nor e'er has done 

Since, long as e'er thou wilt, keep asking still, 
Thy asking ne'er the more my purse will fill ; 

Nor on the other hand doth profit thee ; 
For thy entreaties ne'er will work on me 
To make me give thee money when I've none. 






THE THREE GROATS. 89 



XLVII. 27. 



I recollect toVe in some Rabbi read, 

(Whom certainly thou never didst peruse) 

That (tho abolishM since, wherefor not said) 

In ancient times a custom did they use 

In each of their twelve tribes among the Jews, — 
After a certain space of years had sped, 

Prohibiting upon whatever views 

To talk of debts up to that time unpaid. 

Why have we not that glorious Jubilee ? 

Why should not still that practice be the case, 
And in our times and rituals take place ? 

Then what glad hope were mine ! that on the date 

When next this great solemnity should be 

The long Three Groats' affair would terminate ! 



90 THE THREE GROATS. 



XL.VIII. 28. 

Debt is not a disease to make one sick, 

That hath apparent symptoms to expel ; 

It is nor epileptic pleuritic, 

Nor diagnostics hath whereby to tell ; 

It hurts nor fluids nor the solids thick ; 

{Exempli gratia : in myself I'm well) 

Nor makes the blood flow slower or more quick, 
When duly circulating in each cell : 

It is a heart-ake of the keenest kind ; 

To which no other pain can be compared, 

An inward rack, that night and day doth grind ; 

And, more or less tho all know, none but he 

Its just idea can form as having shared, 

Who has a plaguy Creditor like thee. 



THE THREE GROATS. 91 



XLIX. 29. 

However keen all pleasures pall with use : 

Nor is there aught, our dearest joys among, 
That doth not cause disgust and loathing strong, 
By frequent repetition and abuse. 

Tho purest sweets at first they may infuse 

The gentle breathings of melodious song, 
When listen'd on too often or too long, 
Attract no more, nor longer can amuse. 

How great then is his wretchedness, who must 
Endure what never can delight nor please, 
And of itself alone creates disgust ! 

Now this is just my case that truce nor peace, 

Sad Dun ! ne'er have from thee ; nor wilt thou cease 
To claim those due Three Groats, nor give me trust. 



92 THE THREE GROATS. 



L. 30. 

Whether it be some diabolic spell 
Bewitches thee for ever to pursue, 

Misfortune Fate or what, I cannot tell, 

But know where'er I am there thou art too : 

Thus to escape thee, hateful Dun and fell ! 
To India if I go, or to Peru, 

Where human foot ne'er comes, nor mortals dwell, 
Never to hear thee more, nor more to view, 

There, 'midst the silent waste as I repose, 
And loud of thee, my Creditor ! complain, 
And give loose freely to my pent-up woes, 

My voice's sound struck backward seems to say, 
Returning from her distant depths the strain, 
That Echo asks me the Three Groats to pay. 



THE THREE GROATS. 93 



LI. 31. 



While Echo asks me the Three Groats to pay, 

Nor any one I see that asks me for, 

My mind is dubious if illusion or 

If truth it should be deemM, or what it may: 
Dispelling then all previous doubts, I say 

" If my impressions now be real, nor 

" My senses be defective, this therefor 

" Is no fantastical deception's sway. ,, 
Then I proceed to draw this inference, 

If there be no one here that voice who woke, 

Who could have utter'd it ? from whom or whence? 

At length I see its origin it owes 

To my complaints ; it was myself that spoke : 

And in this way I feed my proper woes. 



94 THE THREE GROATS. 



III. 32. 

If possibly (as some there are suppose) 
In nature a perpetual motion be, 
That circulates perforce continually, 
Returning to itself the way it goes, , 

Perhaps I must for ever weep the woes 

The ne'er-have-done Three Groats inflict on me : 
Since, while I would dispread them outwardly, 
They still come back to whence they first arose. 

Thus, passing from the heart within the brain, 
Thence vocal made, they from the lips go forth 
To bodies opposite, nor fall to earth ; 

But, striking there the auditory part, 
They on the ear come repercuss'd again, 
And from the brain return into the heart. 



THE THREE GROATS. 95 



LIII. .33. 



What nonsense is maintain'd by those and these 

'Bout Climacteric Days (5) ! 'tis all my eye ! 

Their idle thoughts, and foolish fantasies, 
Who to promote some Quack's delusions try. 

When Providence establish'd its decrees, 
To this time or to that it did not tie : 
One may be born on any day you please, 
And every day 'tis possible to die. 

But, without more inquiry in the case, — 
If that be call'd one's " Climacteric Day" 
On which some great calamity takes place, 

That, by a Dun who no compunction has, 

When I was lent Three Groats and to repay, 

For me a Climacteric Day that was. 



96 HE THREE GROATS. 



LIV. 34. 

Now from us the bright sun departs away 
And in the lap of Thetis lays his head, 
While in the skies the silver moon bears sway, 
And night begins her dusky veil to spread, 

The Reaper who has borne the scorching ray, 
And Ploughman who his team or share has led, 
Fatigued with heat and labour of the day, 
For rest extend them on their lowly bed : 

Now that the darkness of the silent night 
To sleep, that nature gave for the relief 
Of human woes, doth soothingly invite, 

Oblivion soft ! on me descend, and set 
At rest my every care and source of grief, 
With all remembrance of the Three Groats' debt. 






THE THREE GROATS. 97 



LV. .35. 



Oh balmy Sleep ! beneath whose healing wing 

Man finds relief from keen affliction's rack, 

From the Cimmerian depths of night come back, 
And o'er my sense thy drowsy pinions fling : 

But with thee not thy changeful Morpheus bring ; 
Who can such manifold disguises take, 
That in my busy fancy hell awake 
The Three Groats 1 recollection and its sting. 

For, if in dreams, whene'er my eyes I close, 
I still must fear and tremble in this way, 
Nor have from thee the comfort of repose, 

Sleep ! get thee gone : if thou canst not remove 

I will not thou augment my ills of day ; 

I've now too great not greater let me prove ! 



98 THE THREE GROATS. 



LVI. 36. 

When, for more peaceful days and calm repose, 
Safe to his native shore return'd at last, 
The Seaman, long accustomed in time past 
To list the waves when tempest-lashM they rose, 

If on the yielding down his limbs he cast, 
In busy dreams, soon as his eyelids close, 
He thinks to hear the winds disturb his doze, 
And billows foam responsive to the blast. 

Thus I, for some time back up to this day 

AccustomM to endure Heaven knows what ills ! 

Oh Creditor! about thy claim to pay; 

In sleep still present to my fancy seems 

That face of thine, which me with terror fills, 
And duns me for Three Groats e'en in my dreams. 



THE THREE GROATS. 99 



LVII. 37. 



"Tis natural my dreams should take their hues 

From what my eyes have seen and ears have heard; 
Since dreams are but what has by day occurrM, 
That alter 1 d then in sleep the mind reviews ; 

Then busy Fancy to itself renews 

What previously the sense had there transferr'd : 
In dreams the Fowler thus ensnares his bird ; 
And Warrior thus in dreams his foe pursues. 

But 'tis surprising how, when wide awake, 
And Fancy wanders on the various things 
That on my senses an impression make, 

The thought of thee to my remembrance clings, 

Thy face before me night and day makes quake, 

And in my ear " Where's my Three Groats?" still rings. 



G 2 



100 THE THREE GROATS. 



LVTIL 38. 



That spirit of pure blood, most active clear 

And vigorous, which supplies the nerves, from whence, 

Whate^r external objects there appear, 

An impulse to the organ gives, and thence 
At once the motus to the brain doth bear, 

And print an image in, alike intense, 

Whatever be the thing you see or hear, 

As oft as outward objects strike the sense. 
Thus every time my avaricious Dun 

Demands me his Three Groats, the ear it wakes ; 

Whence the sensation to the brain doth run, 
And there (as Fm inclined to think _ and tell him) 

A long and wide and deep impression makes, 

That takes up nearly all the cerebellum. 



THE THREE GROATS. 101 



LIX. 39. 



Thence 'tis I recollect the spot and day 

My Dun lent me Three Groats ; whereof so plain 

An image and a lively I retain, 

As of a thing now present to survey ; 

Which wholly doth my imagination sway, 
And occupies the cellules of the brain, 
That still my thoughts recur to that again, 
Howe'er to other objects they may stray: 

That, wheresoe'er I bend my steps or be, 

Mine eye mine ear gives nothing to my thoughts 

But this tormenting Dun and his Three Groats ■ 

And, by this spell which Fancy keeps o'er me, 
Tho not always before me on the spots, 
If not elsewhere in my mind's eye I see. 



102 THE THREE GROATS. 



LX. 40. 

In Pluto's realms a streamlet gently flows, 
Along the Elysian Fields 1 delightful shore, 
Where (when the soul and body part) who goes, 
For certain years returns to Earth no more, 

Whose waters, as the Grecian bards suppose, 
Such admirable virtue had of yore, 
That who should take one draught thereof would lose 
All memory of whate'er had been before. 

Ah ! were that still the case up to this day, 
I'd go this very hour ; and with me take 
A keg, to fill it there and bring away, 

And give it thee to drink, to make forget 

Unfeeling Dun ! for once (if aught could make) 
The old Three Groats' interminable debt. 



THE THREE GROATS. 103 



LXI. 41. 



Oh blissful days what time Queen Bertha spun ! w 

Most fortunate and highly favoured season ! 
That age hight antiently the "golden" one; 
No doubt — because so happy was the reason : 

No " /. O.U.s" were then, nor " Writs,"'' to dun ; 
Nor frequent law-suits, such as now, with fees on ; 
Nor people then were summonsed, should they run 
In debt, nor lost their liberty in prison. 

But times are changed, not now what once they were: 

And woe to that poor devil who gets in debt ! 

For he must go to jail and perish there ! 

And should his Dun not be so hard on, yet 
He plagues him night and clay, wherever met, 
As thou dost me pursuing every where. 



104 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXII. 42. 

Propitious Heaven ! assist me, and withal 

From dangers guard, as hitherto Thou'st done. 
But as in life ne'er yet was any one 
Exempted from mishaps, nor ever shall, 

So should I get from some high place a fall, 

And hurt my head neck foot, or break a bone, 

Whene'er the pain the bruise had caused were gone, 
I'd think but little of or not at all. 

But, tho oblivious age and time can drive 
Each other thought away, yet from my debt 
I cannot turn my thoughts nor thus forget ; 

For, its remembrance in my memory 
My Dun has hitherto kept quite alive, 
And frequently refreshes every day. 



THE THREE GROATS. 10i 



LXIII. 43. 



Should Death not play me such a scurvy trick, 
As 'midst my youthful years to make me die ; 
But on the contrary 't be writ' on high 
That I to good old age continue quick ; 

About the city, leaning on my stick, 

With hanging head and bending back, I'll ply, 

No longer recollecting times gone by, 

With length of years my memory now grown weak ; 

The memorable Three Groats' debt (to pay) 
Alone remeimVring, and thus annually 
My case to my Grandchildren shall I state 

" This was for me a very fatal one: 

"Alas, my Sons ! my sorrows took their date 
" From this sad day, and never will have done." 



106 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXIV. 44. 

One day I to a Limner thus ' I want, 

1 An you be a clever Artist and true Man, 

' A portrait of th"* uncomeliest face and gaunt 

' That e'er was seen since when the World began : 

' Make it the hideousest phisiog: you can, 

' With goggle-eyes, and nose turn'd up askaunt : 
' Nor shall I be content save uglier than 
' Thersites you depict him, all to daunt : 

4 In short, so closely after nature give 

' The likeness of my hated Dun and bore, 
' That I may think I see him there alive. 

c Then, seeing that frightful countenance he has, 

" Bravo ! (I'll say) good Brush ! I want no more 
" Here is the ugliest face that ever was V 






THE THREE GROATS. 107 



LXV. 45. 



IVe seen a savage race ; who faith have none, 
And little honour whatso hallowed name ; 
A race, in part who from that country came 
Where formerly reign'd Attila the Hun : 

Their visage is a coffee-colour'd one, 

With looks ferocious and mustach's the same ; 
And lengthy cloaks they wear about their frame, 
That from the neck down to the ankles run. 

This way that cruel people pass'd along, (7) 
What time they the Sicilian King assailed ; 
An enterprise which ultimately failed : 

Nor 'mong them did I see a single wight 

Who caused me such a dreadful fear and strong 
As doth my Creditor's terrific sight ! 



108 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXVI. 46. 

Algiers and Tunis Tripoli Sale, 

Places that lie where are the days most hot, 
So brute a race of men perhaps have not, 
As brutal is my Creditor with me : 

This man not born like other men could be ; 
But in ill-will and rancorousness begot', 
By one that ne'er suck'd mercy's milk, I wot, 
And daily made him bad examples see. 

The Barbary pirate, when he makes a slave, 
Robs him of cash that he may find on one, 
But does not want his money when h' has none 

But, using me more cruelly than a pirate, 
My Dun don't care whether or not I have ; 
When I've no money still doth he require it. 



THE THREE GROATS. 109 



LXVII. 47. 



That which erewhile held such impetuous sway, 

And hoary Alps in ice imprison'd fast, 

Stern Winter's dreary reign, at length is past ; 
And April comes again, with laughing May: 

That which, when nearer, glowed with scorching ray, 

And on the stem the wither'd flowret cast, 

The burning Sun, gets lower down at last, 
And cheers the languid with a cooler day. 

The World's vicissitudes in constant change 
Thus still succeed, and every ill below 
Is not one long interminable woe : 

'Tis thou alone that thy Three Groats to claim 
Didst once begin, with that one only range, 
Which never ends but still goes on the same. 



110 HE THREE GROATS. 



LXVIII. 48. 



Oh ! well for me that of fair Italy's land 
My Dun and I are natives ; nor of yore 
Born when the World was young, in times before, 
Three thousand years ago, on Egypt's strand : 

For, then, when I had come to be no more, 

Nor leave wherewith to settle his demand, 

I should have been left bleaching on the sand, 
There to this day, until defray'd the score. 

But, no : thank Fate ! and should I go, hence hurried, 
Ere rich enough my Three Groats' debt to pay, 
He cannot hinder me being duly buried : 

He neither can arrest me for them now, 
Nor stop my interment : so, whatever way, 
Alive or dead, I'll bilk him any how. 

%* Substituted for the Original. See "Sketch etc :" p. xxvi. 



THE THREE GROATS. Ill 



LXIX. 49. 



That from all bodies an effluvium flows 

Is in philosophy no idle tale ; 

From thence a perfume mingles with the gale 

From cedar aloe lily or the rose : 

Since all the lighter particles, and those 
Which have the most subtility, exhale 
From bodies, the olfactory nerve assail, 
And make an odorous pulsion on the nose. 

Thus, tho 1 not ill as yet my numbers go, 
It must be ownM that ever and anon 
From me some such exude : is it not so \ 

Whose scent, go where I will, lies far behind : 
And this, good Dun ! thy nares impinging on, 
Thou for a mile or farther dost me wind. 



112 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXX. 50. 



Oh my Chrysophilus ! from some time past 
Till now the land gives gradually worse crops ; 

And blight drought hail combine themselves to blast 

And disappoint the afflicted Farmer's hopes : 

The antient oaks no longer shed their mast ; 
The vine no longer yields its wonted grapes ; 
And enmities of rival nations fast 
Enfeeble trade, and cramp in various shapes : 

The aged Granny by his faith doth swear 

" That formerly were never times like now ; 
" And to its end the world is drawing near." 

All persons now impending danger shun : 

Now every creature weeps and wails : yet thou 
The heart hast me for those Three Groats to dun ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 113 



LXXL 51 



That Charity begins at home is true : 

And we are bound, ere others we relieve, 
Towards our own necessities to give ; 
Wherein the law of Nature we pursue. 

In duty, then, and to myself 'tis due 
To mind myself ere thee or aught alive : 
And every creature does so who would thrive ; 
As equity and justice have in view : 

When I shall have provided for myself, 
If any overplus of cash there be, 
My dear Chrysophilus ! I'll give it thee : 

But, if for that (nor thou canst do without it) 

Thou wait'st, so scanty is my superfluous pelf, 

"Twill be much best to think no more about it. 



H 



11 -A THE THREE GROATS. 



LXXII. 52. 

If on the legs arms throat or on the face, 

There should appear the slightest pimple sore 

Or humour ; and you feel and pick and bore 
A hundred times a day, it thence to erase ; 

And it should itch, nor will you from the place 
Your nails or fingers keep, but scratch the more ; 
The wound, that small and trifling was before, 
At length inflames and grows a serious case. 

'Tis thus my debt of the Three Groats, to wit, 
Oh my Chrysophilus ! most certainly, 
Abstractedly if we consider it, 

Is no such mighty debt for which to dun ; 
But thy insufferable importunity 
Makes it a most considerable one. 



THE THREE GROATS. 115 



LXXIII. 80. 



The Bird, when from afar some Hawk he views, 

That thro the sky in spreading circles sweeps, 

While in full freedom and at large he keeps, 
His fierce assailant easily eschews : 

But when shut up together, to amuse 

Those cruel who delight in others' scrapes, 

The wretch has from his foe no more escapes, 
Nor can the dire encounter then refuse. 

Thus, pent within a narrow city's bounds, 

Four streets a square and single inn for rounds, 

We turn and turn about and still are there : 

'Tis thus that I and my Three Groats 1 hard Dun 
A hundred times a day meet every where ; 
Nor is it possible for me to shun. 



H 2 



116 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXXIV. 77. 

Your letter, my Ergastes ! duly got\ 

That you had charged Lesbinus to convey, . 

Has given me such delight as I may say 
I never felt before, for I had not : 
Eager I read it thrice and once to boot, 
Nor can I from my hand aside yet lay: 
It seems it virtue has to pluck away 
The bitter grief that in may heart takes root. 

And I may state that from (unsettled yet) 

The day I made that paltry Three Groats 1 debt, 
Which has occasion'd me so much ill blood, 
Till now no other pleasure have I known, 
Nor any happiness has been my own, 
But that your friendly letter has bestowM. 



THE THREE GROATS. 1 1 7 



LXXV. 67. 

The true regard that for me you display, 
I feel, my dear Ergastes ! nor can doubt : 
Moreo'er, if you desire to hear about 
And have some news of me, this shall convey. 

Then, Heaven be praised ! I'm well : that is to say. 

I've neither fever pains a cold nor gout ; 

I suffer from no akes of head or foot ; 
Nor have my humours undergone decay. 

But, tho I can't deny my general run 

Of case is good, yet nothing can be worse : 
I'm out of money; and a plaguy Dun 

Is ever at my side ! disasters, these 

A worrying Creditor and empty purse 

Equivalent to some severe disease. 



7 



118 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXXVI. 78. 



" Now then, Ergastes ! learn thatl intend 
" To quit this place at once and altogether : 

" For I can bear no longer, nor will either, 

" My Dun's annoyances, that never end.'" 

Thus in soliloquy my way I wend, 

And think within myself, when I get thither, 
I shall not mind however bad the weather, 
Nor be afraid tho furious Mars impend : 

For there at least there will be none to bully, 
Nor frighten me with his terrific snout, 
As doth my Three Groats' Creditor most cruelly : 

And, if I still must run in debt e'en there, 

I shall not have such Duns (Heaven keep them out .') 
As is the one here haunts me every where. 



THE THREE GROATS. 11.0 



LXXVII. 69. 



I'm very certain, and have long opined _ 

That, should one search the World by land and s 
Ever so long a time, one ne'er would find 
So thoro-paced a Creditor as he. 

Whence often I revolve within my mind 

That if diversity of clime it be, 

Which gives to every nation its own kind 

Of minds and manners that therewith agree : 

Whence is the Assyrian and the Persian weak 

The Thracian savage and mendacious Greek, 

And Rome ere while could boast of valorous sons 

Not less perhaps this clime these skies all here 

Combines to make our native home-bred Duns 
Of stuff inexorable and severe. 



J20 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXXVIII. 70. 

But, 'mong all these, my Three Groats' Dun (I say), 
With whom no other Creditor compares, 
Has signalized himself in such a way 
That justly the pre-eminence he bears. 

To have a Creditor about one's ears, 

As I to my mishap have night and day, 
Is such a sticking plague where it adheres, 
I can't conceive a worse be it what it may. 

No miseries have still one unchanging season ; 
And soon or late or other evils cease : 
But my eternal Dun is none of these, 

He's a perpetual plague for ever tease on ; 

Nor day nor night will let me breathe in peace, 
Nor will he listen or to rhyme or reason. 






THE THREE GROATS. 121 



LXXIX. 75. 



You that are so well vers'd in logic's art, 

(Wherewith men oft say Yea where meaning Nay) 
And know the proper rules by which one may 
Convince them of the truth one would impart : 

For goodness 1 sake assist me to concert 
Some syllogism, or what not, to say 
In baralipton, or some other way 
Of argument, that none can controvert : 

That my Three Groats' hard Creditor at length 

May understand, if hitherto he Ve not, 

He cannot get from me what IVe not got; 

And being at last, than which can none be stronger 

Persuaded of this reasoning's obvious strength, 
He hold his tongue, nor for them ask me longer. 



122 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXXX. 72. 



But, when my Dun's determined to say ;t No" 
All the philosophers and orators whom 
Old Rome or Greece of yore e'er listened to, 
Would not subdue him, nor a " Yes" get from: 

And Aristole's stick (8) alone will do, 
Such pertinacity to overcome ; 
Which oft the obstinate converted so, 
And wrought prodigious miracles with some. 

So, if you 11 do a charitable deed, 

(For which I'll speak such things to your good fame, 
As to the very stars shall raise your name) 

Send me Three Groats per post : and, which will make it 
A favour then complete (moreo'er " with speed ") 
Mind pay the postage; as I then shall take it. 



THE THREE GROATS. 123 



LXXXI. 51. 



Who doth the hungry's empty stomach fill, 
And with refreshing drink is ever quick 
To bathe the thirsty's arid lips, and will 
Th" incarcerated visit and the sick; 

Who clothes the naked's limbs, to guard from chill; 
Who succours the distressM, dries sorrow's cheek, 
Inters the dead that lie unburied still, 
And comforts the disconsolate and weak; 

Who gives good counsel with instruction fraught, 
And in the paths of virtue doth lead back 
Those who had wanderM from and lost the track, 

Doth not such work of loving kindness do, 
Compassionate, as would, Ergastes! you 
To take from me the Three Groat's worrying thought. 



124 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXXXII. 62. 

Rejoice with me, my friends ! for Fve found out 
A certain means wherewith I now can pay: 
Henceforth my Dun, his Three Groats to defray, 
No longer round me shall be seen to scout. 

Three numbers, (9) that for me she dreamt about, 

The Beldame boldly gave me t'other day 

" Hallo there Shop ! hallo! who's there V I say. 

" I want these numbers make the tickets out." 

But now the day of drawing's come : and lo 

The carrier brings the news around; let's see 
What my three tickets have produced : Ah me ! 

Blanks every one ! Whence all my expected gains 
Are vanish'd. Ah! I fear'd it would be so: 
My hopes are fled the debt alone remains! 



THE THREE GROATS. 125 



LXXXIII. 63. 



But let's not be discouraged, come what will : 
Tho for this time weVe not obtain'd a prize, 

111 try a novel scheme a better still; 

Another time it shall be otherwise: 

A certain friend has taught me his own style 

Of conjuring, which never fails he says. 

Meantime, good Creditor ! but wait a while, 
Thou shalt be paid within not many days. 

But look : the winning numbers < 9) now are stuck 
Upon the office : Ah ! what do I see __ 
Not one of mine's turn'd up : what shocking luck ! 

Now may est thou see, and judge by this result, 
That I have done whatever lay in me; 
And, if I cannot pay, 'tis not my fault. 



126 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXXXIV. 64. 

Vain wishes and illusive hopes they feel, 
Who search the future out of numbers, as 

Rutilius Ptiscus Picus, and that class, 

Who in the cabalistic science deal. 

What is at present, whether woe or weal, 
Exist from no connexion with what was; 

Nor ever what one day shall come to pass 

Numerical combinations can reveal. 

For, were it aught but vain, as all such ways are, 
I'd work more sums than ever did of yore 
Hoseim Solomon-Shah or Albumazar ( 10) . 

And could I by that means, unknown before, 

Discharge the old Three Groats' 1 long standing score, 
" Oh, dear Cabala ! Happy me ! " I'd say, Sir ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 127 



LXXXV. 53. 

Let those, who will, attraction's force maintain, 

That heavy bodies downwards gravitate, 

While some move upwards from their lighter weight, 

And some towards each other drawn remain: 

For, this effect or that-one to explain, 

Unknowing of the means that operate, 

From antient times up to the present date, 
Was ne'er the gift of any doctor's brain. 

But I believe; nor do I want for this 
That Newton should assure me it is so ; 
Nor need I seek elsewhere what cause there is; 

For by myself I ascertain the fact, 

That, sympathetically, where'er I go, 

My Dun of the Three Groats I still attract. 



128 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXXXVI. 54. 

All bodies, it is true, do not possess 
That hidden virtue in the same degree; 

In some His greater seen in others less, 

And some that have it not at all we see. 

So I, Chrysophilus ! observe in thee 
A property of strong repulsiveness ; 
That has heterogeneous been to me, 
And always made me fly thy near access. 

Thou still dost follow me, while still I fly; 

And when away from ever and anon 

Within thou still art present to my eye ! 

What's then the secret cause? or who can solve 
The riddle of this strange phenomenon ? 
Philosophers ! on you it must devolve. 



THE THREE GROATS. 129 



LXXXVII. 55. 



Should some one question of the famous sages 
That learned Greece in antient times possessed,. 
He'd tell you all their calculating mages, 
And who the sciences occult professed ; 

And, should he ask from those of modern ages, 

He'd tell you who the atoms' theory guessed, 
Who traced attraction thro its various stages, 
And who that electricity confessed : 

Then, with these principles, up would he get 
On his two legs, therewith to make appear 
En philosophe the whys and wherefors clear. 

But uselessly, this nothing solves the doubts : 

Alone he may the effects and cause of " debt 1 ' 
Explain who seeks them in the Triple Groats. 



130 THE THREE GROATS. 



LXXXVIII. 58. 



The fearful hare, or kid, when from the brake 
The hunter's dog has started, turns and veers 

Now up now down this way and that to take, 

And swift as if her feet were wingM careers : 

But still the dog, ne'er losing scent nor track, 
Follows her close, and closer still he nears, 
Pursues o'er ford or path, or drives her back, 
And now in front and now in flank appears. 

Thus I this way or that in terror run, 

In hopes, my Creditor ! to leave behind 

Or not to meet thee : but I vainly shun ; 

For still I cross thee a hundred times a day: 
So much that I suspect within my mind 
Old Nicholas whispers thee "He's gone that way.'' 



THE THREE GROATS. 131 



LXXXIX. 59. 



Philosophers hold that if in one place 

One body is, another is elsewhere : 

Two bodies being quite separate, in no case 

A single one can be both here and there. 

Moreo'er of that should any person care 

To know the physical reason, 'tis to trace . . 
But, not to wait the causes to declare, 
Suffice we know the fact as on its face. 

Yet, if the thing were otherwise than so, 

(To cite a case in point) I should pronounce 
One body may be here and there at once ; 

For, by the body o' me ! now there as well 

And now I find thee here, where'er I go : 
But how the devil thou dost 1 cannot tell. 



I 2 



132 THE THREE GROATS. 



XC. 58. 

The false Pashah turns pale with guilty fears, 
Of crime too conscious, suddenly to whom 
In presence comes the Capigi, who bears 
The fatal string that indicates his doom. 

The Convict quakes, where his sad days he wears 
In galling chains, within the dungeon's gloom, 
What time the Executioner appears 
With blade in hand that he must suffer from. 

And learn, my Three Groats"' Creditor ! once more, 
That not less terrors into me infuse, 
When all at once thou dost appear before : 

I tremble with affright whene'er I see ! 

Nothing alarms me more than that ; because 
I view my Executioner in thee. 



THE THREE GROATS. 133 



XCI. 52. 



What time the Sun, when fiercest and most strong 
In middle August, shoots his downward ray, 
The Cricket (2) chirping sits upon a spray 
Of crab-tree or the medlar's leaves among, 

" Hush !" (then I tell it) " For thy noisy tong 1 
" Renews the woes that He, from that first day 
" He's been my Creditor, in this same way 
" Has made me bear with one incessant song. 11 

At length come shorter days and cooler skies : 
And that annoying cry at length has done, 
And the tormenting noisy Cricket dies : 

But ah ! still my old plague just as at first, 

Despite my summer and my autumn gone, 
Goes on, nor has my Creditor yet burst ! 



134 THE THREE GROATS. 



XCII. 60. 

While bright thy days shall shine all calm and clear, 
While Fortune shall be kind and stand thee by, 
The servile crowd shall still surround thee near 
That hang on others in prosperity : 

But if, till then serene and fair, that sky 

Now girt with storm-betokening clouds appear, 
In thy misfortunes from thee far shall fly 
Who followed in thy prosperous career. 

Oh faithful Dun of the Three Groats ! I may 

And will to thy just glory ever say 

That one so constant I ne'er saw before : 

For, whether Fate is kind to me or not, 
Thou art inseparable from : tho, I wot, 
This same fidelity doth somewhat bore. 




THE THREE GROATS. 135 



XCIII. 65. 



When sombre melancholy me invades, 

That from my breast nought else can pluck away, 

I seek the depths of solitary shades, 

Like one who hates himself and light of day: 

Thus, silent — lone and sad, while grief corrodes 

My aking heart, unconscious I display 
The weight of sorrow that my bosom loads, 
And which not less my pallid cheeks betray. 

Then if some Clown, who gleans the scatter'd ear, 
Should mark me wand'ring thus, within himself 
He says " This is some desperado elf!" 

And if IVe cord or weapon takes he heed : 
Nor e'er imagines, wondring in his fear, 
That from Three Groats my sorrow can proceed. 



136 THE THREE GROATS. 



XCIVJ 11 ) 66. 

To hide me from my Creditor's sharp view, 
Since 1 no longer stroll about the town, 

One thus consoles me as I lie perdu 

" A man of spirit ne'er should be cast down : 

" People, who are much more in debt than you, 
" Strut with assurance and an air high flown ; 
" And treat their Creditors, should they pursue, 
" So that you doubt which party claims his own. 1 

Then him I thus respond to : ' But if I 

' Have not like that a temper frank and free, 

1 In vain to change my nature I should try: 

1 But rather be one 'mong you, who, to end, 

' Will pay my debts : and then I'll say him by 

' This is the mirror of a real friend? 



THE THREE GROATS. J 37 



XCV.( n > 79. 



Nor were this glorious practice I denote 

A novel one, but only here renewed ; 

For, in antiquity the most remote, 

At Athens, on a time it was pursued : 
If any of them into debt had got, 

The faithful band of friends (12) paid what he owed, 

And all his wants supplied where he could not ; 

Which a magnanimous example showed. 
But tho, when Rome Decemvirs instituted, 

(Her kings expelFd eleven lustres ere) 

And that great embassy to Greece deputed, 
Whence that famed Law o" th" Tables (13) was obtained, 

They brought new laws and usages from there, 

Alone among the Greeks its use remained. 



138 THE THREE GROATS. 



XCVI. 68. 

My Creditor is frequently inclined 

With me in physical matters to explore ; 

He wants to know what makes the thunder roar, 

And what the causes that occasion wind, 

The various shades of colours who combined, 

And whether Tycho Brahe's system or 

That which gives motion to the world__the more 
Consonant with reality I find. 

I tell him then " Who can make manifest 

" Nature's arcana ? or upon the spot 

" Determine if the sun go round or not? 

" Fm only sure of this as you know best 

" You want from me Three Groats, which Fve not got 
" I know nothing at all about the rest." 



THE THREE GROATS. 139 



XCVIL 73. 



My Creditor, observing me display- 
Unwonted liberality of pence, 
Thinking to avail himself of that pretence, 
Persisted asking his Three Groats to pay: 

Then, almost speaking truth, " It was that thence" 

(I told him) " people to themselves should say 

" He must have money, since he gives away 

" And deem me of the greater consequence." 

Thus in the garrison when bread fail'd them, 

What still remain'd the Capitol's defender 

Threw to the Gauls ; and by this stratagem 

Made Brennus raise the siege. He thus preserved (14) 
The citadel to Rome without surrender, 
And kept his credit up, tho nearly starved. 



140 THE THREE GROATS. 



XCVIII. 74. 

I frequently have heard it said by those 

Who Galen and Hippocrates have studied, 

That there are days Tth' year, as they suppose, 
When Patients must on no account be blooded. 

Whether or not this really be the case 

Or Doctors think it I have not concluded ; 

Nor this appears to me to be a place 
Where my opinion on should be obtruded. 

I know my Three Groats' Dun, to make me pay, 
Has no such scruples with respect to me, 
Nor any of those rules observes ; for he, 

So far from that, endeavours every day 

To extract money from, which in some way 
Has with the blood a near affinity. 







THE THREE GROATS. 141 



XCIX. 75. 



If an attack of fever I should feel 

I take Peru's specific, to restore. 

If rheum affect me tea renews my weal ; 

Nor colds nor coughs distress me any more. 

If with internal languor I be ill, 

Or indigestion crude, I downwards pour 

Aloes or myrrh or gulp them in a pill, 

Which virtue have to cleanse the stomach's floor. 

I neither suffer hardness crudities 

Intestine weakness languor nor decay: 

But at my heart an ill still greater lies, 

Who lent wants money from me ; while 'tis sure 

That I have none : and this infirmity 

A College of Physicians cannot cure. 



142 THE THREE GROATS. 



C. 76. 

As one, that long imprisonment endured, 

At length his fetters bursting gets him clear, 

The dungeon flies where he had been immured, 

And lonely wanders thro the forest drear ; 

If midst the silent shades he sudden hear 

The rustling leaf that slightest wind has stirrM, 
AlarmM he stops his pace, in dreadful fear 
Let him he's been escaping from he heard. 

Thus I, that fled as best as I could get off 
Afar from him who gave me constant dread, 
Like prisoner fugitive I keep aloof ; 

And pallid turn, and feel my fears rise high, 
If but a voice I hear or footstep's tread, 
Lest he of the Three Groats should there be nigh. 









THE THREE GROATS. 143 



CI. 81. 



About the Pole, stern winter raging round, 
What time the days are shortest in the year, 
'Tis said the frost so intercepts in air 
The words you speak that they produce no sound ; 

And, when the rugged season ends, more near 
The downward sun doth melt and decompound 
The liquid breath, which frost till then had bound, 
That thawing words on every side you hear (15) . 

Oh Creditor ! if thither, by some power, 

In the cold season I could with thee be, 

I think that, when the nipping frost were o'er, 

It would astonish them extremely there 

To hear a voice nor whom that utter'd see 

For the Three Groats demanding every where ! 



144 



THE THREE GROATS. 



OIL 82. 



Whoever to the light-diffusing rays 

Unfolds his eyes, and breathes the vital air, , 

Has never seen alone unclouded days, 

Nor boasted full felicity whate'er. 
The strokes of adverse fortune some must bear, 

And dire calamity to mar their joys ; 

Some in their breast a hopeless passion wear ; 

And some a sordid love of gold employs. 
From envy these must suffer those from gall : 

And in himself, or round him, every one 

Must bear his share of ills redeem'd to none. 

But Heaven makes mine the hardest of all lots ; 

Consigning me, here hostile more than all, 

To an hard-hearted claimant of Three Groats ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 145 



CIII. 83. 



The rapid rivers first shall backwards flow, 
And sandy banks with flowrets blossom fair ; 
The subtile flame shall first incline below; 
And fishes sail on pinions through the air ; (16) 

First shall the horse the ass the bull the cow 

To promenade upon the wave repair ; 
And wisdom first his intellect endow 
Who from his birth to idiocy was heir : 

In short whate'er's impossible I'll see ; 

Before that owing money, I have not, 
Oh Creditor ! shalt thou obtain from me. 

But thou so pertinacious art, I wot, 

That, tho impossible the thing should be, 

Thou wouldst elicit the Three Groats from nought. 



146 THE THREE GROATS. 



CIV. 84. 



If Daedalus could to his sides unite 

The buoyant wings whereon the skies he clave, 
And with his son (who fell into the wave) 
Could from his prison like a bird take flight ; 

And, on the hippogriff, Astolfo hight 

Could scale the sky and lunar track concave, 
Whence for the Paladin he fetch 1 d and gave 
Him back his brain, that love had turn'd outright : (17) 

Why cannot I have means and power to flee, 
Thro ways by which thou couldst not come to find me, 
And get, Oh Creditor ! afar from thee ? 

For I should like to see if then up there 

The Devil would convey thee too behind me, 
To dun me for thy old Three Groats in th" air ? 



I 



THE THREE GROATS. 147 



CV. 89. 



The Traveller, that on foot unarm'd and lone 

Pursues his way, no cause of danger knows 

Secure from harm when money he has none ; 

And, should he meet with Thieves, still singing goes. 

For Thieves respect the Man, nor fall upon, 
Who to his poverty protection owes, 
Nor to the perils is exposed thereon 
Which others are from depredating foes. 

But thou, O Dun ! hast far a harder heart : 
For — tho my empty pockets I may show, 
Unbutton me, and let my braces go, 

Not only uncontented but, more stony 

Thou and therewith the more tormenting art, 
The more I swear to thee I have no money. 



K 2 



148 THE THREE GROATS. 



CVI. 90. 



As was the golden apple, that, one day, 

When robeless the three Goddesses he'd viewed, 
Paris to beauteous Venus gave (they say) 
Which Juno and Pallas with such rage imbued : 

The fatal gift, that Asia filFd with feud 
And slaughter, and did Troy in ashes lay; 
Whence perish'd such a crowd, that, swelFd with blood, 
Towards the sea rolFd Xanthus on its way: 

Of such a kind perhaps the service is 
My Dun did me ; tho the comparison 
In truth (as people say) is somewhat lame. 

Yet holds it good I think at least in this, 

That, having lent me once Three Groats, now on 
Me cruel war he wages for the same. 



THE THREE GROATS. 149 



CVII. 91. 



I always for infallible will hold, 

And none perhaps will say 'tis not the case, 

That Nature with partiality a fold 

Of leather round his breast and brow did place, 
Unmoved who can the aspect stern behold 

Of one that him for money still doth chase, 

And without fear or scruple can make bold 

To tell his Creditor " NO" to his face. 
Oh brazen brow! thou standest in good stead 

And opportune to him who owes a score ; 

As useful as a good harangue, and more : 
Against all plaguy fellows, 'mong whom shines 

The Three Groats' Dun conspicuous at their head, 

Oh brazen brow ! thou'rt worth Potosi's mines. 



150 THE THREE GROATS. 



CVIII. 92. 

The stupid shaver, that on Midas eyed 
His ass's ears, when made thereof aware, 

If to reveal the secret did not dare 

In vain to keep it from the world he tried : 

Who went alone, and dug a hollow, where 

He whisperM more than once what he'd espied ; 
Then closed the place with earth itself supplied, 
And thought to bury his confessions there : 

But lo the reeds, that grew upon the spot, 

Moved by the wind, spontaneously 'gan cry 

" Our King — our King an asis ears has got /" 

Now, stocks and stones thus hearing thee apply, 
I would not that they too should learn thereby 
Like thou to dun me for thy Thrice a Groat. 



THE THREE GROATS. 151 



CIX. 85. 



The Smith his ponderous hammer lifts, and shakes 
The air with frequently repeated blows 
Upon the steel ; whence blade or helm he makes, 
That shall one day withstand the stroke of foes: 

So when by heat its form the metal takes, 
The Warrior fearless to the battle goes, 
If with that steel he gird himself ; nor quakes, 
Because the temper of his arms he knows. 

So too I imperturbably will bear 

Her adverse strokes, tho Fortune — hostile to 

Should arm herself against me her worst to do : 

For, my Three Groats 1 hard Dun, each greatest ill 
Has harden'd me to suffer whatsoe'er, 
By those annoyances he gives me still. 



152 THE THREE GROATS. 



CX. 86. 

The devious comet, that on high careers 

With sanguine splendour girt__athwart the night, 
Ne^er gave the bigot crowd so much affright, 
From dread of war plague famine when it nears ; 

As oft it makes me palpitate with fears, 
When unexpectedly upon my sight 
The Dun, whose presence is to me the plight 
And harbinger of future ill, appears. 

For, if or not the comets planets be, 

Their course is due ; so that one may by notes 
Their presence here at any time foresee ; 

But none can fix in an ephemeris 

The appearance of him of the Triple Groats, 
He comes so often and irregular is. 






THE THREE GROATS. 153 



CXI. 87. 



I frequently revolve within my mind, 

For consolation to my woes, that debt 

Altho perhaps not necessary yet 

May still be useful call'd to human kind : 

And I reflect that Providence assigned 

To each his proper place, and in his state 

Made one to another man subordinate, 

Yet so that all should have their debts defin'd. 

The difference here consists in this alone, 

That some dissemble more some less ; that those ' 

Keep their affairs conceal'd, and these disclose : 

But this I swear that, in my inmost thoughts 

I'd. mine conceal as close as any one, 

If thou would'st plague me less for those Three Groats. 



154 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXII. 88. 

The nag, that ever has the spurs in 's sides, 
And is accustom'd with their points to deal, 
At length no longer minds whomever rides, 
Howe'er he cross him with a weapon'd heel. 

The laggard ox, whom while the peasant guides 

All day he pricks with goad of sharpen'd steel, 
Moves not the quicker, nor takes longer strides, 
Tho in his back the puncture he should feel. 

The scholar boy, that's whipt for every fault, 
Loses at length his birch's dread of yore, 
Nor can the master keep him from revolt. 

I am that nag that ox and eke that boy: 

Spur — goad and birch, as lists my Dun to employ, 

Henceforth he may: I care for them no more. 



THE THREE GROATS. I5i 



CXIII. 93. 



My Creditor with me has often got 

Such an agreeable and pleasant way, 

Just as 'niong friends is practised every day, 

As if the debt he thought no more about ; 
And only asks if Frederic will or not 

Deliver Prague, or in Bohemia stay ; (4) 

If Hanover be taken by D'Etre ; 

Or if from Brest the squadron have got out , 
And, when h'has beat about the bush a while, 

By little and little to the point he trots, 

And says " Well, when shall I have my Three GroatsV 

Thus sometimes, playing with a Mouse, ere nip, 

The Cat will on her helpless victim smile, 

Until at length she gives the fatal grip ! 



156 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXIV. 94. 

The Mariner, who ploughs the distant sea, 
To augment the wealth he has already won, 
Brings hither from Macao silks and tea, 
Or goes for salted fish to Cape Breton, 

If he should strike on rocks or shallows, he 
To Heaven for his deliverance looks alone, 

And vows that when at home he safe shall be, 

Hell give a votum (18) for the favour done. 

Oh gracious Heaven ! now too hear me : One day, 
If I can also drive and from me chase 
The man who persecutes me in this way, 

A solemn offering in the church I'll place ; 
As one who fled in a most perilous case, 
And from some dreadful danger got away. 



THE THREE GROATS. 157 



CXV. 95. 



In very antient times, imposed by might 
On weak humanity, a law (19) prevailed ; 
Which afterwards, as contrary to right, 
Fell quite into disuse and was repealed, 

That if, to pay his debts, a wretched wight 
(From getting into poverty) had failed, 
The Creditor might wreak his cruel spite 
Upon the debtor's body unless bailed. 

Perhaps for me that law is still in vigour ; 

Since thou, my Dun ! dost plague me night and day, 
Because I cannot those Three Groats repay: 

But here perhaps thou'st reckon'd ill, o'er eager ; 
For thou dost treat me with inhuman rigour, 
And I don't liquidate my debt this way. 



158 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXVI/ 20 ) 96. 

What sounds are these, nor that to Earth belong, 
Which tuneful sweets thro ambient air convey ? 
The swan ne'er sang with such mellifluous tong'; 
The nightingale ne'er woke so sweet a lay ; 

Less sweetly erst, th 1 Elysian fields among, 
To Pluto did the lyre of Orpheus play, 
Who lulFd the triple-headed hound with song, 
From hell to bear Eurydice away. 

Perhaps (if that be actually the case, 

Which Plato in his dreams supposed to be) 
That concert in harmonic skies take place \ . 

But be it what it may, those magic notes 

Such rapture in me wake, that now, debt-free, 
At length IVe quite forgotten the Three Groats. 




THE THREE GROATS. 159 



CXVII. 97. 



The Pilgrim, who, 'mong woods has lost his way, 
And plunged in depths whereout he can't get back, 
If, sallying from the drear obscurity, 
A robber lurking there should him attack ; 

Or lamb, that, from the shepherd gone astray, 
Far from the flock has wanderM off their track, 
If, urged by hunger keen in search of prey, 
The fierce and savage wolf should cross its walk ; 

Or dove, what time the cowering hawk sh'has viewed, 
Already sees him from on high come down 
And stretch his talons out to seize upon ; 

Not so much dreads the fierce assault at hand, 

As I with terror tremble when pursued 

I see thee come the Three Groats to demand. 



160 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXVIII. 98. 

Chrysophilus, who, like a common lover, 
Admires his girl and follows every where, 
Always attempts with a Platonic air 
Of purity to gloss his passion over ; 

And dares to say he never did approve her 

For earthly beauty, nor because she's fair, 

But for her mental charms, and virtues rare, 
That tho unseen he in her can discover. 

Now this same stoic virtue he would claim 

I cannot quite so readily allow him : 
Better than any body else I know him ; 

And know his visiting me in nought denotes 
Affection for, but always has for aim 
And primary end his never-done Three Groats. 




THE THREE GROATS. 161 



0X1X. 99. 



My dear Chrysophilus ! it is the case, 

I know, that stoutly you maintain and say — 
Platonic love exists (an idle phrase, 
Which but egregious folly doth betray) 

And that, if gifted with that special grace, 
An amateur of female beauty may 
Attach his eyes upon a pretty face, 
Yet meanwhile turn his thoughts another way. 

Now, my Chrysophilus ! if upon this 

You'd wish to know what my idea may be, 
I'll tell you most sincerely what it is, 

That your " Platonic love" within my thoughts 
. Appears as difficult a thing to me 
As that I should return you those Three Groats. 



162 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXX. 100. 

An old ill- tempered master's ways to bear, 
And autumn chronic-rheumatism's twitch, 
Their Ba Be Bi Bo Bu to children teach, 
An ill-accepted benefit confer, 

A snarling cur's bow-woicing in one's ear, 
The hissing of a boiling kettle's screech, 
A crude disjointed dull long-winded speech 
In your own virtues' eulogy to hear, 

To ask nor ever have one answered " Yes" 

On foot o'er sand to trudge a length of way, 
To hear perpetually the same as now, - 

Are all indeed severe annoyances ; 

But less intolerable, be what they may, 
Than is a plaguy Creditor like thou. 



THE THREE GROATS. 163 



CXXI. 101. 



King Attalus's treasures I not want, 

Whereto he made the Roman people heir ; 
Nor for the honours Caesar reap'd I pant, 
When he return'd great Pompey's conqueror : 

Nor, Heaven ! do I implore thou should'st me grant 
Illimitable happiness whate'er ; 
For — to be happy here is what man can't, 
And without bitter sweet he tasted ne'er. 

Nor riches neither poverty give me ; 

Give me a middle state : IVe courage, too, 
To bear adversity in due degree. 

But he's a plague that nothing can compare with : 
• Then rid me of my Creditor, pray do ! 
I'm tired of him, and can no longer bear with. 



L 2 



164 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXXIL 102. 

What ignorance and folly they betray, 

Who follow Arnold Geber^ 10) and that set ; 

And to transmuting metals think to get, 
While secretly they labour night and day, 

And sweat around a crucible, while they 
Salt mercury and sulphurs Amalgamate, 
Nor after all succeed to imitate 
By art what Nature works in her own way! 

Ah ! why don't we that wondrous art possess ? 
Why may not Man with Nature vie, not less, 
And copy those fair works she spreads around ? 

For then, to get the Triple Groats' true ore, 
I'd study chymic properties ; which found, 
Fd break the pot, nor think about them more. 



THE THREE GROATS. 165 



CXXIII. 103. 



Just as a cauldron or a kettle does, 

When standing on a blazing fire well-fed, 

If its contents boil up, by heat dispread, 
No longer it can hold but overflows : 

For some time past till now, with similar throes, 
Do the Three Groats go bubbling in my head 
With such a foam, that poetry thence is bred, 
Which thro the tongue exuberating goes. 

And so the tiresome claims, wherewith till now, 
Ne'er giving me a single day of pause, 
My stingy Dun has plagued me to allow, 

May well be calFd the busy-blowing bellows, 

Which keep alive the fancy's fire and cause 

The overflow poetical that follows. 



1 66 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXXIV. 104. 

Perhaps, when Mahomet ruled Arabia erst, 
There importuning Creditors were none ; 
As now there are by far too many a one, 
Of whom my own is of the very worst : 

As, 'mong the denunciations interspers'd 
Amidst his Koran, an annoying Dun, 

That night and day him worries who's hard run 

For money, is not mention'd to be curs'd. 

Should any now to me do all the wrong, 
That to one enemy another does 
With all the worst malignity of foes, 

I'd tell him thus " There's one, still worrying me, 

" Who's always at my heels : my Dun since long 
" May he likewise be a Creditor to thee !"" 



THE THREE GROATS. 167 



CXXV. 105. 



Oh Heaven defend me ! what a frightful dream 
I had last night, that me with terror shook : 
Methought Fd cross'd the Styx ; and it did seem 
The Infernal Judge his seat before me took ; 
And, when he'd heard my sins, recounting them, 
While on me frowning with an angry look, 
(I tremble yet !) stern Minos, to condemn, 

Thus his irrevocable sentence spook 

" Let him forthwith be taken down, and put, 
" For his so many heinous crimes, where he 
" Who enters once must ever more be shut : 

" And he, who living was his Dun now dead, 

" Below shall his most fierce tormentor be, 

" And there shall stand him in the Furies 1 stead." 



168 THE THREE GROATS. 



cxxvr. 106. 

I had a dream of such terrific hue, 

That I awoke all trembling : and therefor 

I'll turn me Ascetic straight, lest it come true ; 

Nor with the world have commerce any more : 

And all my days henceforward I'll pursue 
The austerest virtues' practice ; and deplore 
The gone-by follies of my youth, and rue 
My sins most bitterly and weep them o'er ; 

And, breathing penitence and sanctity, 
I'll go bare-footed and with shaven crown, 
Nor will I e'er be seen about the town : 

And, if my plaguy Creditor should come 
E'en there to seek me in the monast'ry, 
I'll make the Porter tell him " Not at home." 



THE THREE GROATS. 169 



CXXVII. 107. 



One day (just to discuss the point herein, 
Not to impeach its truth, I apprehend) 
Chrysophilus in talk with me arraign'd 
The immortality o' th' soul within : 

And laid his greatest difficulty in 

That what has a beginning has an end : 

But " No." (said I) " There are things, I contend, 

" That never finish when they once begin : 

" And certainly there's nothing strange in that. 
" Moreo'er, Chrysophilus ! a bet I'll lay 
" That in thyself I'll find an instance pat : 

" Perhaps thou didst not once the Three Groats' debt 
" Begin to ask me for ; which goes on yet, 
" And is not like to finish till I pay?" 



170 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXXVIII.^ 108. 

The toug" of Oc so calTd unto this day, 

And that of Oui. were those in which of yore 
Gawen and Arthur's names in many a lay 
Were famed by Bards who that distinction bore. 

Th 1 Illyrian tongue of Ya is heard o'er more 
From Adria to the Alps along that way. 
From Var and down the hills to Ocean's shore 
Extends the beauteous land where Si is Yea. 

Thus the affirming particle, we see, 

Imparts the name to every vulgar tong\ 
This Country so the land of Yes should be : 

But mine has now been used to answer so 
The Creditor of the Three Groats so long, 
That I may call my tong" the tong 1 of NO. 



THE THREE GROATS. 171 



CXXIX. 109. 



The prudent chief, both art and force who tries, 

A city fort— or castle to reduce, 

When all that he can do is of no use, 

To turn his arms elsewhere himself applies. 

And he, that in remoter times, likewise, 
Corinthus' Isthmus (22) vainly tried to sluice, 
When he discern'd he should his labour lose, 
Abandon'd th 1 injudicious enterprize. 

'Tis thou alone, Oh Dun ! wilt still persist 
In what's impossible, tho all in vain 
Thy toil has been till now and ends have miss'd ; 

And o'er and o'er a hundred times a day, 

Tho from me thou canst never aught obtain, 
Perverse dost ask me the Three Groats to pay. 



172 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXXX. 110. 

In Phrygia erst there was a King, they say, 
(I tell it thee as I myself was told) 
Who gave a kind reception to the old 
Silenus, when one time heM lost his way ; 

Whom Bacchus, for the favour to repay, 

Permitted in his touch the power to hold 

That every thing were instant turn'd to gold 
On which he at any time his hand should lay. 

For me I do not want, to make me rich, 

To have that gold-transforming attribute : 
Away be from me such a sordid itch ! 

But wish that thou (so a superfluous store 

Thou mightst possess) couldst all to gold transmute ; 
To worry me for the Three Groats no more. 



THE THREE GROATS. 1 73 



CXXXI. 111. 



Thou say'st that no one hitherto has found 

The Circle's Quadrature nor ever will : 

And, my Chrysophilus ! it must be ownM, 
And I confess 'tis undiscover'd still : 

For, altho some reduce it to a bound 

Of squares triangles and what not to fill, 

Yet its extremities of curve around 
They cannot measure with unerring skill. 

But, tho no demonstration has till now 

Been given to make the Quadrature appear, 
Perhaps some person yet will show us how ; 

For as 'tis there there 'tis : But so they'll not 

(Which, on the other hand, is nought less clear) 
Find out Three Groats on me (23) if I've not got. 



174 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXXXII. 112. 



My Creditor upon me came one day, 

Demanding his Three Groats' unsettled score ; 
And like a post he stuck himself before, 
As if inseparable from to stay ; 

And if I budged an inch, behind he lay, 

And followed like my shadow. Where, once more, 
Oh ! where's the horn (24) Astolfo had of yore, 
That drove both men and women far away ? 

Had I an instrument of such a power, 
I'd blow as loud as ever I could blow, 
Till he should go to pot and even lower : 

But Fate, that arms itself to work me woe, 

Perhaps would make him deaf thereto nor cower 

At that dread sound which frightenM others so. 



THE THREE GROATS. 175 



CXXXIII. 113. 



Oh labour lost ! vain foolishness of man ! 
For, what avails it me that I peruse 
The authors of the classic age, or chuse 
Both Maro's works and Tullius's to scan ? — 

Or speculate on Nature's hidden plan, 
Inquire in motion's undiscover'd laws, 
Of ocean's ebb and flow explore the cause, 
And how attract the steel the magnet can ? 

What folly in cold or heat by night and day 

O'er musty volumes to grow pale and pore, 
The sciences to learn and knowledge get ! 

Since, Creditor ! it ne'er was possible yet 

To get Three paltry Groats ; and got', to pay, 

Give them to thee and hear about no more. 



176 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXXXIV. 114. 

Chrysophilus engages in a day 

Or two to learn speak French off-hand and free ; 
He knows quite well already what is " 0m; n 
And, on occasion, he " Non pas" can say. 

Now what he thinks to bring about this way 
Is not made public, nor can all foresee ; 
Perhaps it rests exclusively with me 
To guess the motive of this new essay : 

Perceiving that he can't obtain his ends j 
Nor any how his money from me get, 
However he have ask'd me for as yet, 

He deems that language may possess, to wrench 
Cash from one, greater power ; therefor intends 
To worry me for the Three Groats in French. 



THE THREE GROATS. 177 



CXXXY. 115. 



Thou think'st that I am angry with thee now, 

Who love thee, Creditor ! and wish thee well, 

And would thou wert a Duke or King, and thou 

Hadst as much gold as ever thou couldst tell : 
For, generous then, thouMst say to me, I trow, 

" Henceforth I do not want your money : quell 

" Your fears ; for on you freely I bestow 

" The due Three Groats ; therewith your treasures swell.' 
But still Fve cause to fear and do opine 

Thou would'st continue to torment me thus, 

E'en tho the gold of all Peru were thine : 
For, who has money still wants more supplied : 

And there's an antient adage teaches us 

That " Covetous men are never satisfied." 



178 THE THREE GROATS. 



cxxxvi. 117. 



Now stomach up, now with his mouth turn'd down, 
The suffering Invalid distracted writhes 
With pain and heat ; and, restless as he lies, 
Nor sleep nor ease can get to him unknown : 

But then should the Physician call upon, 
And write a Recipe to give him ease _ 
That virtue has to cure of his disease, 
The convalescent Man gets well anon. 

But that complaint, which I within me feel, 
Has work'd into my bones in such a way, 
That 'tis not possible to cure or heal ; 

So, when my Dun calls on me, to converse, 

The oftener he his visits comes to pay 

The more my ill increases and gets worse. 




THE THREE GROATS. 179 



CXXXVII. 118. 

According to the various properties 

C th' blood and juices Nature pour'd in us, 

May be that the diversity all lies 

In manners and in modes of acting : thus 

The vigour of the spirits qualifies 

Complexions of a choleric impetus ; 

And seriousness, and torpid tendencies, 

A dull phlegmatic habit langorous. 
Thus hatred, love, and covetousness have birth ; 

And every action, to whose end were formed 

Those organs Nature in us all puts forth. 
Therefor, my Dun ! I think that in this way 

Thy importunity was in thee germed ; 

Whence ask'st for the Three Groats so unceasingly. 



M 2 



180 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXXXVIII. 119. 

Perish the man among us first, I say, 

Inexorable poverty who brought ! 

Thro her unmingled pleasure never may, 

Thro her ne'er full felicity be got. 

'Twas she that first to write u I promise to pay'' 

The needy man, who has no money, taught ; 

Who, when he can't discharge it on the day, 

In jail his liberty must lose, if caught. 
This cruel pest also for me begets 

A fruitful source of ills of every hue, 

When it occasions my contracting debts. 
My only comfort is to ponder this on ,_ 

My Creditor can harass me, 'tis true; 

But _for Three Groats one can't be sent to prison, 



THE THREE GROATS. 181 



CXXXIX. 120. 



What thinkest on, my Dun ! that thus unnerved 
Mournful and mute dost stand, with serious air ; 
As one that some faiFd-often-in affair 
Within his mind revolves when unobserved ? 

So absent are thy thoughts and much disturbed, 
This way and that thy haggard eyes do glare, 
Proclaiming on thy brow thy bosom's care, 
Which seems as if it all thy soul absorbed. 

Thou think'st, perhaps, that as to no effect 

Till now hast ask'd for the Three Groats to obtain, 

Against me some new weapons wilt direct? 

But, on that scheme to ponder" s of no use : 
If all has hitherto been done in vain, 
The future can no better luck produce. 



182 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXL. 121. 

My Creditor does not those weapons wear, 
Eneas or Achilles erst did wield, 
By which, with so much slaughter far and near, 
One Italy the other Phrygia fuTd ; 

Nor those with which more lately there and here 
Orlando (17) strew'd the soil with foes he'd kilFd ; 
But me with importunities severe, 
And savage methods arm'd, he has assail'd ; 

And unexpectedly will at me throw 

The mortal summons his Three Groats to pay : 
I ward the stroke, and hurl at him a "NO." 

Continues now, and fiercer grows the fight : 

But turning tail I quickly scud away, 

And victor I remain alone by flight. 



THE THREE GROATS. 183 



CXLI. 116. 



The tennis ball, that 'gainst the wall is thrown, 

A nd striking there 's indented somewhat flat, 

Cannot retain that form I know not what — 

Caused by the violent impression on : 

For, by its elasticity, anon 

It reassumes the shape it lost by that ; 
And, in a new direction turn'd. thereat, 
Rebounds him who projected it upon. 

In such a way the malice and ill-will, 

Which thou for the Three Groats dost on me vent, 
Finding in me a greater hardness still, 

Thrown backwards by a " NO," reflects to thee ; 

And thus, by a re-acting power, whence sent 

Bears back the blow projected against me. 



184 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXLII. 122. 

What time his first the unpractised Sailor hears 

The dreadful howling of the stormy gale, 

And views the wave on high its crest that rears, 

With failing heart and voice he turns him pale : 

But when at sea grown-up, in older years, 
He sings in concert to the furious squall ; 
And, seated on the stem, devoid of fears, 
Beholds the horrid darkness round him fall. 

In such a way I felt a terror strong, 

When my tormenting Creditor "gan erst 

To strike up his Three Groats 1 perpetual song : 

But, since my ear's accustom'd to the stave, 

Amusement now if dread it gave me at first, 

And I go singing to his noisy wave. 



THE THREE GROATS. 181 



CXLIII. 123. 

Among the old philosophers Greece had, 
There were some certain sages (so they say) 
Who boasted equal firmness to display 
In every kind of fortune good or bad; 

And, with such stoicalness arm'd and clad, 
They vaunted they would not in any way 

The greater pleasure — grief nor fear betray, 

Tho the whole world should tumble down like mad. 

Now, just to prove their bragg'd indifference, 
I would have put them to the test awhile 
In my own way, which ne'er ran in their thoughts : 

And, if they had within them life or sense, 

They'd ne'er have taken things in that cool style 
With this my Creditor of the Three Groats. 



186 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXLIV. 124. 

I've often heard it said of Cicero 

His powers of oratory were so strong, 
And that he had so eloquent a tong 1 , 
He never paid his debts however so : 

When any summonsM him for debt, heM go 
Up in the rostrum, and hold forth so long, 
Entangling so the case with right and wrong, 
That he ne'er paid, whatever he might owe. 

Oh dearest Cicero ! how happy thou ! 
Thy Creditors outwitting by this plan : 
Rare gift wherewith the Gods did thee endow ! 

Thou wast not such a ninny of a man 

As I, that gabble gabble on, but can 

The Three Groats' debt not puzzle any how. 



THE THREE GROATS. 1 87 



CXLV. 125. 



Silent within the caverns deep and dark 
Of that Sicilian mountain, in whose womb 
Enceladus erst found a living tomb, 
Bitumina and sulphurs latent lurk : 

But, if ignited by that secret spark, 

So many have sought to find but none of whom 

Have found, it vomits flames therefrom, 

And masses huge throws up of wondrous work. 

Thus, for a length of time, within my brain 
A shapeless body of poetic matter, 
Without exuding thence, had torpid lain : 

But, from when the Three Groats 'gan there for birth 
To struggle and ferment, with fearful clatter 
Poetical eruptions have burst forth. 



J 88 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXLVI. 126. 

Perhaps thou canst not live without me, heh? 
Perhaps IVe some magnetic virtue, so 
That thou must follow me where'er I go ; 
And from thee then I cannot get away ? 

But Til go hide myself some where, and stay, 
Where thou not possibly should'st come also, — 
Some place conceal' d from every eye, where no 
One human creature's foot did ever stray ; 

And see if even in that solitude 

Thou'lt find me out, nor I can any where 
Thy teasing importunities elude : 

And then I'll think thee like the hound, just as 
The track he follows of the flying hare, 
And winds her scent wherever she may pass. 



THE THREE GROATS. 18.9 



CXLVIL 127. 



Happy the Merchant, who, in any place 
Where he's in debt, is not obliged to stay; 
But loads his ship, and goes, as list he may, 
To sell his goods where such is not the case ! 

For then his Creditor's provoking face 
Is not always before him every day ; 
Nor can his Dun torment him, in the way 
That mine does me, without a moment's grace. 

For not alone to China or Peru, 

As goes the Merchant, I can neither go, 

But we must dwell together here the two : 

So that, where'er I am, between my Dun 
And me there's but ten yards perhaps or so : 
Then how the devil can I him ever shun ! 



190 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXLVIII. 128. 

A certain lover of the antique one day 
Took me the Campidoglio^ 25) to explore : 
There statues I beheld, that lined the way, 
On which had learned chisels toiFd of yore : 

The monstrous Deities did I survey, 
The gross Egyptian people wont adore ; 
And wounded Gladiator too, that lay 
Half fallen and half not ; with many more. 

A statue then I saw, extremely like 

To him I've always hated for his credit, 
Which with an inward terror did me strike ; 

Then, like a thief that flies the Sheriff's men, 
Down stairs I ran as quick as I could tread it 
And while I live 111 ne'er go there again ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 191 



CXLIX. 129. 



It never was a good man's act to do 

To want get money out of him wh' has none : 
It is against true charity, and one 
'Gainst every other Christian virtue too. 

But let's discuss the point : All this ado, 
And importunity of thine hereon, 
Perhaps will rather make me vow anon 
Never to pay thee more than hitherto. 

Indeed, to say the truth, I intended yet, 

That by this means no one should know thereof,. 
Within a day or two to pay it off: 

But now 'tis otherwise ; for, if I do it 

Or not, 'tis all the same : all know my debt : 
So I've no longer any motive to it. 



192 THE THREE GROATS. 



CL. 130. 

While in such gloomy colours I display 

My Creditor, all readers without doubt 

That he's a miserable wretch will say, 

Who cannot those Three Groats exist without. 

Yet in toupee and ruffles he goes out, 

And wears his crimson mantle every day, (26) 
And in his splendid mansion all about 
Has costly furniture in grand array. 

But while I still him his Three Groats refuse, 
Whether by night or day he cannot rest, 
Nor values aught whereof he is possess'd. 

If his demands then I object to grant, 

Pray who shall of injustice me accuse, 

Since they proceed from wilfulness not want? 






THE THREE GROATS. 193 



CLI. 131 



Let Fortune arm herself to work me wo, 

And all her utmost rage against me stir, 

In me no more her anger wakes a fear, 
Nor me is longer formidable to : 

My Creditor of the Three Groats has so 
Accustom'd me his cruel wrongs to bear, 
That I with patience can endure from her 
The greatest ills and worst that she can do. 

And my ill, by all these many woes produced, 

Has been of use to me at last tho late : 

For oft times good may be from ill deduced. 

Nor aught will I e'er fear from hostile Fate ; 
Since still I sing, amidst my woes elate, 
And sport thus with my sorrows, to them used. 






194 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLIL 132. 

With brow of deepest gloom, and awful tone, 

* 

" Cornel''' 1 said my Destiny to me one day: 

While liberty of choice she left me none 

Whether to answer her with yea or nay. 

Like one that's blind I followed her ; or one 
That must his executioner obey_ 
Who binds his hands and hoodwinks, that alone 
He cannot find the middle of the way. 

Thro hurricanes and whirlwinds me she led ! 
How tell what dreadful fears my heart alarmed, 
While trippM my feet and giddy turn'd my head 

But, from a thousand dangers when to shun 

SheVl drawn me, gave me up at length unharmed 
Into the hands of a Three Groats' 1 hard Dun. 



THE THREE GROATS. J 95 



CLIII. 133. 



If I go where, with hurdle stake or net, 
The Shepherd for his flock a pen has made, 

And see the furious dog nor can evade 

Come running up with foaming jaws sharp set, 

I look if stick or stone be near, to get, 

And with such arms in hand Fm nought afraid ; 
Or search my pocket for, and give him bread ; 
When, pacified, he licks my feet like pet. 

With thee, however, that cannot be done : 
For thou didst never listen to a prayer ; 
Nor boldest face e'er frighten'd thee, I'll swear. 

A harder heart than thine was ne'er till now 
Or seen or known, nor more unyielding one, 
Since even a dog's more tractable than thou. 



N 2 



196 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLIV. 134. 



These maxims hear, I give thee, to direct : 

When we do good, my Brother ! with our store, 
We neither should remember it nor score ; 
Else praise nor merit can it then reflect. 

The proverb says, which well I recollect, 

" Do good: but then about it think no more : 

" At length one day, tho it be late before, 

" ''Twill profit you when you the least expect." 

Thus others do : But thou dost not do thus ; 

That, having once advanced me Three Groats' loan, 
Dost night and day torment me for them still. 

Thy favour did me some small good, I own : 
But there's no end to thy annoying fuss : 
So such a good's no better than an ill. 



THE THREE GROATS. 197 



CLV. 135. 



A Proclamation's issued, it appears, 

Prohibiting expressly_from this date 

All Eagles Sessinis and French Deniers (27) 
From longer passing current as of late. 

Both thou and I are most unfortunate ! 

I'd got all ready for thee my arrears 

An hundred and fifty Doits : but, luckless fate ! 
They're Eagles every one all rank Mounseers. 

What's to be done \ I have no other money : 
Nor will I violate the Proclamation, 
Nor put forbidden coin in circulation 

I'll put them in deposit, until when 

(Which method will I take as best of any) 

That coin shall come in currency again. 



198 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLVI. 136. 

Chrysophilus, his other parts among, 
Such a phlegmatic temper has, so slow 
A man there never was ; and, right or wrong, 
He never can determine Yes or No : 

Whene'er you tell him " Why d' you loiter so ? 

" Get your work done, and don't stick there so long. 1 
What others would have finished hours ago, 
He will to more than half a day prolong. 

By some fatality I know not what, 

He'll only change this dilatory way 
To an extreme solicitude with me ; 

For, when he asks me his Three Groats, with that 
He shakes his sluggish nature off, nor may 
A much more expeditious Man there be. 



THE THREE GROATS. 199 



CLVII. 137. 



The ternary number always seems, if scann'd, 

To have some meaning of a mystic one 

Whatever act or rite three times be done, 
For solemn and completed then doth stand. 

The Fates, and Furies, were a triple band ; 

And Graces. Cerberus had three mouths his own. 

Apollo's tripod was of great renown. 

And Neptune's trident arm'd his dexter hand. 

This same mysterious 8, e'er since the day 

My Threefold Groats' dire debt has made me grieve, 
Amidst a thousand sorrows in this way, 

Contains for me a certain power malefic, 
That of all kinds of ills, I do believe, 
Has been for me a fatal hieroglyphic. 



200 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLVIII. 138. 

No Warrior brave is he, tho bearing arms, 
Who is not foremost to assail his foes : 
But well a Soldier's duty he performs, 
To others who a bold example shows. 

The sacred Priest, to piety who warms 

The breast, and who expounds Religion's laws, 
Whose precept to his practice not conforms, 
Howe'er he preach thereto but little draws. 

Then, while thou dost not pay thy share of debt, 
Why art thou so importunate with one 
Who is thy debtor ; nor wilt e'er have done ? 

Nor canst thou therefor lay the blame on me : 
I'll follow the example thou dost set ; 
First pay thy Creditors then I'll pay thee. 



THE THREE GROATS. 201 



CLIX. 139. 



Thou'rt in a passion with me, and would'st know 

Why those Three Groats I don't repay thee duly 

Now listen, Creditor ! what is most truly 
My strongest plea I have none to bestow: 

Nor any can exception make nor show 
To this good reason, that avails me fully ; 
Tho even he should come among us newly 
Who made the digest and the code also. 

Nor will I, for thy sake, do aught that can 
Be deem'd unworthy of an honest Man, 
Or clash in any way with what is fair. 

For justice, equity, and the laws each one, 

Protect a Debitor 'gainst whomsoe'er 

Who'd squeeze out money from him when h' has none. 



202 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLX. 140. 

So thoult not sue me the Three Groats to pay, 

Lest I should plead them lent too long ago ; 
Or else to prove me knavish in some way, 
Or with some other motive I can't know ? 

But I have no intention of doing so : 
Moreover such a trifle to defray, 
As is what I unfortunately owe, 
Shall ne'er a fraudulent debtor me display. 

Besides, the principal point does not consist 
In my admission ; nor till now have I 
Denied the debt (which does in fact exist) 

Nor ever will deny it : there it is. 

But I deny t 1 have cash : the difficulty, 
Oh my Chrysophilus ! consists in this. 



THE THREE GROATS. 203 



CLXI. 141. 



A man, who always doth with patience hear, 
Shall oft tire out another's tongue in's head. 
But, my Chrysophilus ! it can't be said 
That us between things e'er did so appear 

Thou hitherto hast not worn out mine ear ; 
For to the present day IVe not yet paid : 
Yet thy eternal tongue has never stay'd 
From asking, and still runs its old career. 

The point yet moot remains : and, were it tried 
By any one, to settle whether thou 
Or I have been the conqueror in the bout, — 

I think he would be puzzled to decide 

Which of us has th' advantage had till now ; 
But still must let the question lie in doubt. 



204 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXII. 142. 

But I, by reason of the fact, do say 

I have the advantage of thee : thou alone, 
Oh Creditor ! a claim of right canst lay ; 
Whilst I am in possession of the bone. 

Now, if his case, who's in possession, may 

Be always held the best o'ertopp'd by none, 

While I do not thy due Three G-roats repay_ 
My case will always be the better one. 

If hitherto IVe had the best of it, 
I will that superiority maintain ; 
Nor let one day be said while I admit 

That, seeing finally resistance vain 

To thy importunities, compelPd to quit 

1 gave the contest up and thou didst gain. 






/ 



THE THREE GROATS. 205 



CLXIII. 143. 



Chrysophilus ! what Vails it, night and day, 

Thou for thy cash persisting me to bore 

I sturdily refusing to restore, 

To war against each other in this way ? 

Then let's make peace : the status quo of yore 
We'll for the basis of agreement lay : 

The terms shall be I never to repay, 

Thou ne'er for thy Three Groats to ask me more. 

But vain the hope ! I know how that would be : 

As well expect a Shylock to forget, 

As want oblivion of a loan from thee ! 

The first time that by accident we'd met, 
In asking for the news, or some such plea, 
Thou'dst break the treaty and demand thy debt. 

V Substituted for the Original. See " Sketch etc." : p. xxvi 



206 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXIV. 163. 



I kept some antient coin in a bureau 

For thee, my Creditor ! to pay thy score : 
I'd found it under ground ; a coin of yore 
That in the Consuls' time at Rome did go : 
They are Sesterces minor, ( 28 > thus also 
Two Asses and a half, and worth therefor 

Five Farthings each perhaps say six not o'er ; 

Their value may be estimated so. 
In these Sesterces thee I'd meant to pay : 

When, hearing some disputing on the amount, 
I found it difficult therein to give 
Thee thy Three Groats, exactly to defray : 
So let the debt stand over : for I wo'nt 
Give more nor less than thou should'st just receive. 



/ 



THE THREE GROATS. 207 



CLXV. 165. 

I assure thee, Creditor ! so do believe, 

That, had I had them on a former day, 

A point I'd made it thy Three Groats to pay. 

But what ! who e'er what they have not can give? 

That, which I have, thou from me shalt receive ; 
And round thy brows my Muse shall twine a bay 
In fadeless wreath of laudatory lay, 
Whence shall thy name to future ages live. 

Thou may'st observe how good my intention is, 
Because I give thee all I have to spare ; 
I can but give thee Sonnets, here they are. 

But thou wilt not receive thy money back 
This fashion, nor be paid in coin like this : 
Rolling thine eyes, thou seem'st to say " Oh lachT 



208 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXVI. 166. 



There's now no longer a hope howe'er so faint 

To rid me of the cruel plagues and woes 
My Dun inflicts upon ; e'en, when he goes, 
Tho he should go where his Grandfather went : 

For, some days since, he made his testament ; 
Wherein he this condition doth impose 

Upon his heir " TK inheritance to lose, 

" Unless he dun me for the money lent." 

Now when was ever equal malice heard, 

If that fell act, which plagues me night and day, 
Must from himself be to his heirs transferrM ? 

Not even Death can terminate nor kill 

My woes, if my hard Creditor this way . 

Alive or dead — must persecute me still ! 



; 



THE THREE GROATS. 209 



CLXVII. 167. 



Do not be wroth, if, on thy beauteous face, 
That pierced me, Nisa ! with a shaft so soft, 
I now no longer come to gaze so oft 
As I was wont some months ago to gaze : 

A Creditor so plagues me nigh to craze, 

That every other care my bosom left 

The day I got in debt ; and, thence bereft, 

No longer Love holds in my heart a place. 

Believe it, Nisa ! trust me when I say 

That Love and Debt can ne'er companions be : 
Whence I think more about my Dun than thee. 

Directly I made that debt Love turn'd about : 

For those Three Groats I quite forgot Love's sway : 
And thus one Demon drove the other out. 



210 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXVIII. 168. 



My Nisa ! ne'er reproach me on that score, 
Nor be incensM with, for unfaithfulness ; 
My heart is still the same as heretofore, 
Nor is thy beauty otherwise nor less : 

But were it even she, in days of yore 

Who caused the fall of Troy, I do profess 

I could not bend my mind upon thee more, 
Nor less unseldom than I now address. 

But wilt thou, Nisa ! that, as wont with me, 

To thee anew I turn my heart and thoughts, 

Supply me with ('tis no great sum) Three Groats. 

Nor deem it strange : thou of the present day 
The first fair lady surely would'st not be, 
Who kept herself a lover in this way. 



THE THREE GROATS. 211 



CLXIX. 169. 



That bear's cub, Nisa ! which the other clay 
My Lesbin found within its den, so tame 
Already is become and full of game, 
As often freely with the dog to play: 

Alconius fancied it, and for his flame 

Nerina ask'd it me ; for which to pay, 

He offer'd me the finest cup that may 

Be seen, if I would let him have the same. 

But, let him keep his cup : alone for thee, 

I, Nisa ! keep my gift ; and thou alone 

Had I a realm should'st have a realm from me. 

The gift I know 's unworthy of thy thoughts : 
And Pd a greater give : but what can one 
Who has not wherewithal to pay Three Groats ! 



212 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXX. 170. 

Seven times hath now the sun left Ganges' shore, 
And him as oft immersed in Ocean depths, 
While I in vain pursue my Nisa's steps, 
Whether at day's beginning or when o'er. 

No more the woods she roams the fields no more 

Nor longer from the limpid fountain sips, 
Where oft she wont to bathe her rosy lips, 
What time the noon-day beams intensely pour. 

Must then, my Nisa ! while I track thy way, 
Thou, like the stag when by the dogs pursued, 
With rapid flight thus still my chase elude ? 

While, by a strange fatality, my Dun, 
If I attempt to fly him, night or day, 
Still follows me whichever way I run ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 213 



CLXXI. 171. 



If e'er beside the river's verdant marge, 
Or seated 'neath the leafy oak, if e'er 
With thee, my beauteous Nisa ! I enlarge 
On that sweet shaft which in my heart I bear ; 

And, trembling while 'tween doubtful hope and fear, 
To end my tedious woes my suit I urge ; 
My amorous complaint thou wilt not hear, 
Nor let me from the Triple Groats diverge. 

Ah ! why deceive myself? who cannot see 

My love has to thee always hateful been 

My sorrows only pleasure give to thee ? 

Thou cruel Fair ! I cannot say here how 

Which grieves me most, my love and debt between, 
If most my Creditor afflict me or thou ! 



214 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXXII. 172. 

Behold that knot of flowers, so fresh and fair 
At early morn ! full soon must they decay : 
Such, scornful Nisa ! is thy beauty, rare 
And blooming now, tho doomM to fade one day. 

Lo how the breeze, here wafted from the bay, 

Doth shake those flow'rs, and bend now here now ther 

Inconstant Nisa ! thus thy heart doth stray, 
From one love to another changing e'er. 

Go, pluck them ; and thy locks No, let them slink 

At foot those heaps obscene : now some one throws 
A stone at them — and now another goes : 

Now see how they do shrivel up and shrink, 
And, like the Three Groats 1 Creditor, they sink 
Beneath heapM up indignities and " NO^es. 



1 



THE THREE GROATS. 215 



CLXXIII. 173. 



My Nisa's image erst was wont to be 
So present to my thoughts, that I could trace 

Her golden hair neat foot and lovely face 

Therein, and all her wondrous beauty see. 

When, O my Dun ! some time ago, in me 
The strangest metamorphosis took place ; 
And, by an odd fatality of case, 
My Nisa all at once was changed to thee ! 

And where had been a length of time engraved 
Her image that had charm'd me and enslaved, 
Lo what a precious figure ! enter' d thou. 

Twas thus on Argos' plains, when from them banished, 
Upon the sudden presence of a cow, 
That Inachus's lovely daughter vanished. 



216 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXXIV. 174. 

The secret love, conceal'd within my heart, 

Thus inwardly doth often prompt my strains — 
" Ah ! sing of her, whose each bewitching art 
" And peerless beauty made thee wear her chains 

" Sing those bright eyes, whence issued forth the dart, 

" Which planted in thy breast still there remains 

" And that soft tongue, which did the flame impart, 
" Whose fervent glow thy bosom still retains." 

W r hen I, who never can oppose its will, 
Address me to the lofty task ; yet, thus, 
Within myself the doubtful point discuss, 

" Now, if I find the fair-one take no pity 
" On my complaint of sorrows, cruel still, 
" 'Twill turn to sing the Triple Groats' old ditty." 



THE THREE GROATS. 217 



CLXXV. 175. 



E'er since thy beauteous image in my heart 
By Love's own hand was graven, until now, 
Heaven truly knows, my sweetest Nisa ! how 
I always long to be where'er thou art. 

But there's thy Cousin watches thy resort, 
Like Argos watching Io turn'd to a cow ; 
And most ferociously doth knit his brow, 
When he sees any body pay thee court : 

And, jealous as a Man can ever be, 

He will not let me nigh thee from me kept : 

So with him I no intercourse will have. 

Nisa ! that Cousin of thine has given me 

Such a dislike, no other one except 

The Creditor of the Three Groats e'er gave. 



218 



THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXXVI. 176. 



Adorning when her hair with flowers among, 
And in her crimson gown attired, whose bloom 

Makes her appear so charming if along 

With other Nymphs my Nisa goes to roam, — 

While, such rare beauty firing seals my doom, 

With full delight on her I gazing hang, 

The shafts of Love IVe no protection from 

Of Love that gives my heart so sweet a pang. 

Yet, since my Nisa vanishVl from my sight, 
Like something that in former times might be, 
All thoughts of her have likewise taken flight : 

But when I see him of the Three Groats 1 score, 
My heart doth quake ; and when no more I see, 
He leaves his image present there before. 



THE THREE GROATS. 219 



CLXXVII. 177. 



If ever, Nisa ! I regain the same 

Tranquillity of heart my lot once gave, — 
If ever freed from debt, that chills my flame, 
And doth me now with bitter sorrow grieve, . 

I'll make Parnassus ring with thy sweet name, 
Not less than Pindus ; and a wreath I'll weave 
Of praise immortal to thy beauty's fame : 
And Nisa too her Poet then shall have. 

But, too severe the sorrows are, that thus 
By day and night still on my quiet prey, 
And that my heart with mournful sadness fill ; 

Nor can I wake appropriate numbers, till 
The persecution those Three Groats to pay 
Give over to torment me as it does. 



220 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXXVIII. 178. 

I saw it lighten several times at noon ; 

And then a violent wind got up, the weather 

Betoken'd rain, the sky grew dark, and soon 
The thunder 'gan to make a dreadful pother. 

An lov'st me, Nisa ! soon as dusk come on, 
Eurilla call ; with Elpin will I hither, 
What time I shall have penn'd the flock anon ; 
And thus in chat well spend the night together : 

Eurilla with her Elpin shall converse ; 

While I, my Nisa ! will with thee rehearse : 
And let it rain and thunder as it may; 

For I should hope that, while so bad it is, 

The Three Groats' claimant, worrying me to pay, 
Will not pursue me such a night as this. 



THE THREE GROATS. 221 



CLXXIX. 179. 



Rise, Elpin ! quit thy pillow : for, behold. — 

Already day in Orient lucid shows ; 

The flock already quits the openM fold, 

And on the dewy blade to pasture goes. 
I 1 th" neighbouring grove a fete to day they hold : 

The Shepherd-throng already thither flows ; 

There rural Pan in song shall be extolFd; 

And there will they relate their amorous woes. 
Up, Elpin ! rise, and take thy lute : I know 

That thine the chieftest meed of song will be ; 

And that no Bard's can rival with thy lay. 
There, an it please thee, we'll together go : 

And on my pipes I also will for me 

On the Three Groats some little matter say. 



222 THE THREE GROATS. 





CLXXX. 180. 

Must I then still behold each lad each 

Of merriment and sweet enjoyment full, 
While, wrapt in melancholy thoughts and dull, 
Am doomM my fresh and youthful days to pass ?_ 

And, brooding o'er my woes that still amass, 
On gloomy cares must I still feed my soul ? 
Must adverse Fortune still my fate controul ? 
For me must Heaven be always dark ? Alas ! 

And must the cruel plague, that hitherto 

Has filFd my heart with grief, go where I may, 
Still persevere to vex me, as 'twould do ? 

Oh rigid Fate ! for once relent ; and let 
Me breathe in peace releasM one single day 
From all remembrance of the Three Groats 1 debt. 



THE THREE GROATS. 223 



CLXXXI. 181 



Fair Nisa ! now I'm near thee, to review 

And gaze on that sweet face that charms me aye ; 
The grief, that still tormented me anew, 
Has wholly left my heart and gone away. 

Til rid me now of every care ; and now 
111 sing thee that same song I sung one day 
To Amaryllis, when herself my brow 
With wreaths adorn'd, so much she liked the lay. 

And Lesbin ! give me thou that cup ; I'll down 
The liquor pour, that shall my spirits arm 
With strength and courage high 'gainst Fortune's frown. 

Oh generous wine ! thou art a deadly weapon 
(While with full joy thou dost my bosom warm) 
Against my Dun of the Three Groats to clap on. 



224 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXXXII. 182. 



Great Bacchus ! what delights thy fountains pour ! 
Thou dost man's real happiness contain. 
On all their past adversity and pain, 
Alone thro thee the wretched think no more. 

Thou fill'st the blood with warmth unfelt before ; 
The weight of age thou teachest to sustain ; 
And, shaking growing coldness off again, 
The genial glow of youth thou dost restore. 

Now from thy veins would'st thou supply my own, 
In thee, O mighty Bacchus ! 'neath thy sway, 
My every care and gloomy thought I'd drown : 

Would'st thou in me transfuse thy rage divine, 
With gladsome heart I'd skip and dance away 
Before that Three Groats' Creditor of mine. 



I 



THE THREE GROATS. 225 



CLXXXIII. 183. 



What means within me this unwonted glow, 
That sweetly wraps me from myself away? 
What fire all up and down my veins doth flow I 
" Hip ! hip ! hip ! Bacchus for ever ! hurrah !" 

But ah ! who's this that comes towards me now ? — 
Whoe'er thou art, keep off! begone ! I say : 

Alas ! now I know thee: aye my Dun art thou 

Thou'rt he who wants me the Three Groats to pay. 

Oh Liber ! give me a while that thyrsus, which 
Him, who did thy divinity deride, 
On Rhodope's high crags did whilom switch. 

The Dun shall here thy victim fall thro me ! 

A memorable warning to abide 

For all who plague their Debtors as does he. 



226 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXXXIV. 184. 



Hark, Osnrin ! quick as e'er you can, forthwith, 
Go pluck the bitter wormwood's leaf; and take 
The bristled holly, thistle from the heath, 
And prickly thorn ; whereof a bundle make : 

Add thereunto the beet from ground beneath, 
And slimy mallows also, if you reck ; 
Then bring them me : I want to make a wreath, 
Wherewith a most unworthy head to deck. 

But, to Pan's temple first the Fauns invite ; 
And Satyrs with the cloven foot there cite ; 
Charging them all to come by dawn of day: 

While to the ceremony then 111 bring 

The Three Groats' 1 Creditor who'd have me pay, 

And there of plaguy fellows crown him King. 



THE THREE GROATS. 227 



CLXXXV. 185. 



This is the fatal spot, Sir ! where one day 

Chrysophilus lent me Three Groats : 'twas there 
He drew his purse ; and, opening it, with care, 
Told out the money, warning to repay. 

It waVt a step beyond the place, or ere 
He 'gan already asking me to pay ; 
And from that time, tormenting me this way, 
The stingy Dun has followed every where. 

The spot is baleful, Sir ! and we must purge : 

With logs of wood hewn by the moon's cold rays 
Now make a magic fire, and round its verge 

Keep turning barefoot : twice and thrice then cry 
(With lustral water sprinkling o'er the blaze) 
" Get out of this hence, evil Spirit, fly!" 



P2 



228 THE THREE GROATS. 



CLXXXVI. 186. 

Lo where the boatman to the water side 

Approaches with his skiff: now freely go, 
My Nisa ! take a pleasant sail, or row, 
Upon the tranquil bosom of the tide. 

Cymodoce, who roams the ocean wide, 

With hair in corals twined herself shall show ; 
And that bright goddess, (29) Hercules loved so, 
For spiteful envy in the wave shall hide. 

If Glaucus Proteus Palsemon on thee 

Their wanton looks attach, I don't conceal 
That jealousy and anger I shall feel : 

But, unless an amphibious beast he be, 

At least shalt thou not have, as I have still, 
The Three Groats' Grand Tormentor about thee. 



THE THREE GROATS. 229 



CLXXXVII. 187. 



Blows Aquilo, the atmosphere now chills, 
And sidelong now the Sun inclines his rays ; 
Bereft of leaves henceforth the grove now stays, 
And snow already covers all the hills. 

Come, friendly Season ! if the grief that fills 

My bosom — nothing hitherto allays, 

Now that the skies are cold and wet the days, 

Perhaps thoult bring some respite to my ills. 

In torrents let the rain come down and floods, 
As much as erst in Noah's time did come : 
For then at least the Dun will stay at home ; 

Nor can he come so often to his task, 
Unless he be a wildman of the woods, 
As now he does me for Three Groats to ask. 



230 THE THREE GROATS, 



CLXXXVIII. 188. 

Bleak "W inter's reign henceforth is past and o'er ; 
North winds and nipping frosts no longer sway; 
And now the Swallow comes from Egypt's shore, 
To breathe with us a more refreshing day ; 

The verdant leaf now clothes the grove once more ; 
With flowers and grass again the meads are gay ; 
Again sad Progne's voice is heard to pour, 
And Philomel renews her wonted lay. 

Now at this time, the fairest of the year, 
The Shepherdess and Shepherd joyful love 
In mirthful dance the nimble foot to move : 

Alone I mope, to sadfulness a prey; 

The Three Groats' dunning claimant, wheresoever, 
For me each pleasure mars or turns away ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 231 



CLXXXIX. 189. 



When in the World's primeval age, 'mong Men, 
Pure Nature's precepts were their actions' guide, 
With equal rights to every citizen, 
They'd all in common. 'tween them to divide. 

But, thirst of having, later wealthier when, 

Of mine and thine found the distinction wide : 

And by reciprocal exchanges then 

Each other's wants they mutually supplied. 

But, as an equalness in every case 

Could not be always had by barter's way, 
Money was substituted in its place : 

And later this brought with it every where 
A train of woes, whereof unto this day 
I for Three Groats have borne an ample share. 



232 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXC. 190. 



Superfluous prolixity of clack, 

Chrysophilus ! I hate : conversely so 

I love substantial brevity in talk, 

The style that Sparta used awhile ago. 

Thus the Byzantine magistrates did balk 
The Macedonian, when he ask'd to go 
Thro their dominions, and opposed his walk 
With one but a sonorous downright " NO! ,,(30) 

This sturdy "No" this plain unvarnish'd " Yes" 

Are tokens of a heart sincere at core, 
Which thus its real sentiments express : 

So, when thou ask'st me thy Three Groats to pay, 

If with a " NO" I answer -nothing more, 

Let this in me a heart sincere display. 



THE THREE GROATS. 233 



CXCL 191. 



When from her den the Tigress, mad with wrath, 

Misses her cubs, the Hunter just has ta'en, 

Him after, that already flies amain, 

She foaming springs, and closes with him rath : 

But he throws down a mirror (31) in her path ; 

She foolish stays to look, then starts again ; 

Another drops, she views herself therein, 

And gives the robber time to 'scape his death. 

Thus, if my Creditor come 'cross my way, 

One of my Sonnets straight I make him hear : 
He lists, then wants me the Three Groats to pay 

With other Sonnets still I persevere ; 

And entertain him thus and keep at bay, 
Until by little and little I get me clear. 



234 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXCII. 192. 

What will not, to be talkM about one day, 
The ambitious man attempt ! for future fame, 
Some sweat 'neath weight of arms in war's fierce game, 
And to the hostile blows the breast display : 

Some give their weary eyes no rest, while they 
O'er learned leaves grow pale : with views the same, 
He, who Diana's temple fired, his name 
Intended to immortalize that way. 

How fortunate, Oh Creditor ! art thou : 

That, without any merit skill art lore 

Aught of thy own, thy name is famous now ; 

And haply shall it its renown down carry 
To after times : yet dost thou nothing more 
Than ever me for thy Three Groats to worry. 



THE THREE GROATS. 235 



CXCIII. 194. 



Should'st thou do greater feats than either or 

Rolando, Rhodomonte, or Ferrau, (32) 

Or he that made Darius to him bow, 

Or Charles the Mounseers** mighty Emperor ; 

Had no one in the World more sense than thou, 

More virtue valour wisdom wit or lore ; 

And didst thou even know a little more 

Than he who found the rule-of-three ere now ; 

Thy name, O Creditor ! to latest ages 

Would not become so celebrated nearly, 

As now, henceforth recorded in these pages, 
The importunity (alike to shame us) 

Thou'st always plagued me with both late and early, 

For ever and for ever will be famous. 



THE THREE GROATS. 



CXCIV. 195. 



Perhaps that some will blame me in this thing ; 
Others perhaps will think it too long spun, 
Because I harp upon no other string 
Than the Three Groats and my tormenting Dun ; 

A nd, as a fertile vein for more than fun 

Apollo gave and taught me how to sing, 

Would have me up a higher gamut run 

The feats of some great Chief or mighty King. 

But, as the hardships he has undergon 1 , 
And battles wherein he has ta'en a part, 
The Soldier always goes descanting on ; 

So of my cruel Dun devoid of ruth 

And of my debt I talk, to ease my smart : 
As still the tongue falls on the aching tooth. 



THE THREE GROATS. 237 



CXCV. 196. 

When autumn rain falls over night, and from 

The golden East the Sun dispreads his ray, 

On the wet soil the dangerous mushroom 

A brief appearance makes and rots away: 
Such were, Chrysophilus ! thy future doom, 

With nothing that immortalize thee may, 

Save the Three Groats, with which, none more than whom. 

I'll make thee famous thro thee World for aye. 
And the ancient Miser shall hereafter thee 

For an example rare and type forth hold 

T' his prodigal Son, and to him thus shall he, 

" My Son ! WoukTst thou also grow rich (he'll say) 

" Him imitate, that was in days of old 

" The Debtor's scourge still dunning him to pay.*' 



238 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXCVI. 193. 

These tuneful plaints, I to the winds disperse, 
One morning to Chrysophilus I read : 
Which when he'd heard me to the end rehearse, 
He with unmoved rigidity thus said, 

" Not song I want from thee, but to be paid : 

" For poetry ne'er yet could fill the purse : 

" Instead of wasting time, too long delay'd, 
" Me once for all prepare to reimburse." 

I answer 1 d him ' Sufficient care I've born' ; 

' And to this hour the Triple Groats"' old score 
1 Has in my side still been a painful thorn. 

' An wilt be paid, it is thy business now : 

' I'm tired and will think of it no more : 

* IVe hitherto now think upon it thou." 



THE THREE GROATS. 239 



CXCVII. 197- 



Unwise is he, that, in the cheerful days 

Of early youth's green spring, with barren fame 
Is charm'd ; and, idly basking in its rays, 
That lives enslaved by Glory's empty name : 

If uselessly with Poesy's bright flame 

Apollo warm'd my breast ; and, for my lays, 

Now on Parnassus' top and now I frame 

On lofty Helicon to pluck the bays ; 

Since that my Creditor the Muse disdains, 
And far from Cyrrha turns his steps till now, 
Nor with th' unfading leaf will deck his brow, 

Nor deems the tuneful verse, that here I weave, 
(Indifferent he to all poetic strains) 
Worth his Three Groats which he'd much rather have. 



240 THE THREE GROATS. 



CXCVIII. ]98. 

A man of squeaking voice, of middle age, 

Tall, shrivelFd, thin, and stooping that doth go ; 
So slow and dull, it puts one in a rage ; 
Irresolute no man was ever so ; 

Tenacious of whate^r he may allege ; 

Inquisitive for news going to and fro ; 

If ask'd a question there he stays on edge 

For half an hour, without saying Yes or No; 

But above all, so troublesome he is_, 

So clamorous and such an inveterate bore, 
That his true character consists in this. 

Should any one now ask whom this denotes, 

And of the individual would know more, 

This is the Creditor of the Three Groats. 



THE THREE GROATS. 241 



CXCIX. 199. 



Whoe'er the voice of my lament has heard, 
With which these melancholy leaves I fill, 
And the complaints I've here 'gainst him preferr'd 
Who lent me those Three Groats I owe him still, , 

Perhaps will say that I've done wrong, and err'd, 
To treat a worthless subject thus, and will 
Declare Apollo has in vain conferr'd 
This heavenly gift on me to use so ill. 

But who can know the man that to my song 
The motive gives, and what the sorrow is 
That wrings my heart and has made pine so long ? 

Whoe'er can know that oft within my thoughts 
I do not weep my real miseries 
Beneath the pretext of the Triple Groats ? 



242 THE THREE GROATS. 



CC. 200. 



Last night, within my chamber while immured ; 
And, by the radiance that a rushlight shed, 
Singing the woes IVe from my Dun endured ; 

Apollo stood before, and thus he said 

" Thou'st sported now enough thy debt is paid : 

" If Honour's call be in thy bosom heard, 

" Wake themes that may immortalize thee dead." 

Then on me stern he frownM, and disappear^. 

A heavy trance now o'er my senses came, 

The lyre fell from my hand, went out the flame, 

And sticking in my throat expired the lay. 

At last again then coming to my thoughts, 

'Here now (said I) henceforth, "Good Night!" I say, 
c For ever to my Dun and his Three Groats.' 



243 

THE TRANSLATOR'S 
EPILOGUE. 

Hail, fellow Rhymsters all ! be of good cheer : 
Pluck up new courage Fortune to oppose ; 
And hold in utter scorn the World of prose 
Henceforth to you unfolds a bright career ! 

Each Poet now may be his own cashier : 
WeVe here a panacea 'gainst all woes, 
With means to bid defiance to our foes ; 
Nor dinners' want nor durance need we fear. 

And tremble ye vile Duns ! obnoxious race ! 

For now a brother Bard, in moving strains, 
Has taught us how to liquidate a debt 

And treat a Creditor in future case ; 

Like this one, gibbetted and hung in chains, 
Tuck'd in terrorem up to all the set ! 



H 2 



NOTES. 



Note 1. Sonnet xiii. 

Father G. Daniel, a french historian of the seventeenth 
century, author of the work entitled " A Voyage to the World 
of Descartes," wherein he examines that philosopher's fanciful 
hypotheses. 

Note 2. Sonnets xxviii. xci. 

This is the Cicada or Balm-Cricket ; one of the Gvyllus 
family ; and, however it be classed, certainly of the stridulous 
species. It is common to the South of Europe. 

In the Natural History of this Insect are given some 
amusing accounts of its obstreperous loquacity, as if it seemed 
to wish to make up in noise for its deficiency in other means 
of attracting notice or powers of mischief, for in every other 
respect it is a perfectly harmless creature. 

Anacreon has honoured the Cricket by making it the sub- 
ject of one of his Odes, the 43f& ; and which has been very 
prettily imitated, or rather paraphrased, in a Sonnet, by the 
italian poet C. M. Maggi. There is also a very beautiful 
english Sonnet addressed to it — in conjunction with its cousin 
of the hearth, by Mr. Leigh Hunt. 

In Southey's History of Brazil (vol. i. cap. 5*) there is a 
curious anecdote about one of these creatures being the means 
of saving a squadron of vessels from shipwreck, by beginning 
to chirp at night time when they were approaching the land 
without any body being aware of the danger. 

* P. 105. 4to. edition. 1810. 



246 NOTES. 



Note 3. Sonnet xxxix. 

This simple Sonnet, extemporaneously written, suggested 
the Work. 

Note 4. Sonnets xlii. cxiii. ccix. 

These were written during the f Seven Years' War" 
1756—63. 

Note 5. Sonnet liii. 

There is a book on this subject by the learned Salmasius 
(Claude de Saumaise) " De annis climactericis etc. Lugd. 
Bat. 1648." wherein all particulars about the " Grand Climac- 
teric" are fully discussed. The Antients considered the 63rd 
as the climacteric year. See also Beloe's Miscellanies (vol. ii. 
p. 45. 16mo. edit:) for some interesting details thereon. 

Note 6. Sonnet lxi. 

It is not certain what Queen Bertha is here alluded to ; 
but probably the wife of Pepin the Short, and mother to 
Charlemagne, as in those days Ladies of even the very highest 
rank were accustomed to work for their Lords. As with the 
Italians, Au temps que la Reine Berthe filait is an adage still in 
use among the French, in reference to the olden time. And 
we still have "In the days of king Lud." To our own 
Bertha, Ethelbert's queen, this Country owes the abolition 
of Paganism. 

Note 7. Sonnet lxv. 

This alludes to the unsuccessful invasion of the Neapolitan 
territory by the Austrians and Hungarians under Prince 
Lobkowitz, in 1744 ; when they penetrated as far as Veletri 
but were eventually repulsed. On their advance, being 
encamped near the city, the Romans used to go out and look 



NOTES. 247 

at them with astonishment and admiration, conceiving them 
very formidable from their "barbarous" clothing and harsh- 
sounding language. See Bonamici's History of that War. De 
Rebus etc. lib. i. c. 2. 

Note 8. Sonnet lxxx. 

We have not been able to find any authority for the use 
and properties here attributed to "Aristotle's stick." But, 
from a passage in Horace (Serai: 1. iii. 134) it would seem 
that the Stoic Philosophers of his time, who wore a long 
beard as indicative of their Sect, and by their negligent dress 
otherwise resembled the Cynics, were obnoxious to the popular 
majesty, and used to carry a stick when they went abroad, to 
repel the approaches of boys and ragamuffins whom the 
singularity of their appearance drew about them. This 
practice might also have prevailed among the elder Sages, and 
the "cane" have been worn by them like the later "wig" — as 
giving assurance of "wisdom." Moreover, Aristotle, as the 
founder of the Peripatetic Sect, might ex officio have been 
accustomed to use a walking stick : and, as he was remarkable 
for a very dogmatic and proselyting turn, it is not improbable 
that he occasionally employed the argumentum bacculinum 
to enforce his doctrines and work the "wonderful effects" 
here spoken of. 

Note 9. Sonnets lxxxii. lxxxiii. 

A slight deviation from the Original has here been made, in 
using general terms, to avoid the necessity of explaining it by 
a long account of the Italian lotteries. These may be seen 
described in detail in Blunt's Vestiges, p. 272. and Rose's 
Letters, vol. i. p. 72. 

Note 10. Sonnets lxxxiv. cxxii. 

Arabian writers on the Cabala or occult science ; also some- 
times familiarly called with us the "Black Art," from an 



248 NOTES. 

erroneous connection of it with that of modern "Abstraction*," 

formerly so called from its practitioners the Robin Hood 

gentry — being usually masked or disguised with black. 

Note 11. Sonnet xciv. xcv. 

The connection here of these two Sonnets, which cannot 
be disjoined, proves the superior correctness and authority of 
our Original (that of Naples 1814) to the Paris Editions, 

where they are separated, S. 94 being there 66 and S. 95 79, 

thus making the latter allude to a circumstance that does 
not appear. This is farther corroborated by the Sixteen addi- 
tional Sonnets, here given in Appendix ; several of them being 
evidently the first thought of others afterwards worked out 
in a better form among the retained ones, and therefor laid 
aside by the Author, as they would then have been but bad 
repetitions of the latter. But, in common with so many 
others, he has here suffered from the injudiciousness of his 

own " kind friends," or others of those " savers of 

last drops," who seem to think that quantity alone is a suffi- 
cient recommendation and that any increase of amount is 
enough to make up for whatever defect. 

Note 12. Sonnet xcv. 
" The faithful band of friends." 

This society was composed of any number of persons, who 
united for the purpose of mutual assistance in the event of 
falling into poverty. They were accustomed to have suppers 
and entertainments at their common expense, each contributing 
his proportion; and were called Eranists (grcece Epai/torat, 
collectors, quasi mendicants) from soliciting relief for any of 
their members who might be in want. See Athenceus, l. 8, 
c. 16. and Gronovius. Thes. Grose. Ant. vol. 6. p. 373. Horace 
seems to allude to something of the sort at Rome. Epl: 

* " Convey" the wise it call: steal? poh! a fico for the phrase. 

Pistol. M.W. of W.A.I, S. 



NOTES. 249 

1. 13. 15. Akin to this was our ancient " Bid-ale" 
or « Help-ale." 

Note 13. Sonnet xcv. 

The generally received opinion about the famous Law of 
the Twelve Tables is (as our honest Debtor here says) that it 
was borrowed from Greece. But some modern historians 
(#. a. Vico) have called this in question, considering it as the 
product natural and characteristic of the civil state of the 
Roman community at the time of its enactment. At all events 
it seems to have overlooked the case of " Small Debtors." 

With reference to the first part of the above, the famous 
Jurist Accursius has a most excellent story on the sub- 
ject, illustrating the usefulness of silence as a substitute for 
and token of wisdom. 

" The Romans having requested the Athenians to commu- 
nicate those laws to them which Solon had dictated, the Grand 
Council of Athens assembled to consider of the demand. It 

was resolved That one of the Grecian Sages should be sent to 

Rome, to see whether the Romans were entitled by their wis- 
dom to have these Laws ; with orders, if they were not, to 
bring the Laws back without communicating them. 

" This resolution was not formed so secretly as to prevent 
the Roman Senate from being informed of it. On hearing it 
they were much embarrassed ; for it was a time when Rome 
did not possess Philosophers sufficiently profound and learned 

to contend with a Grecian Sage. The question then was to 

find some expedient to disentangle themselves from this 

dilemma. The Senate determined that there was nothing 

better than to oppose a Fool to the Grecian Philosopher ; with 
this view, that if by chance the Fool prevailed, it would be a 
great honour to the Romans that one of their Fools had con- 
founded one of the Grecian Sages ; and, if the latter triumphed, 
it would be no great glory to the Athenians for having over- 
come a Fool. They also resolved that some of their most 
learned men should disguise themselves as labourers, and appear 



250 



NOTES. 



to be working in the roads on the day that the Grecian 
Ambassador should come to Rome; and, when they saw 
him, some should address him in latin, some in greek, 
and others in hebrew. 

" The Athenian Ambassador, on his entering into Rome, 
was addressed by these men in the different languages. He 
was met by the Senate, and conducted to the Capitol ; not 
without making many reflections on how great the learning of 
the Romans must be, when the common labourers spoke the 
various languages with such elegance. When he arrived at the 
Capitol, he was introduced into an apartment superbly fur- 
nished ; where they had placed a Fool in a chair, dressed as a 
Senator, and with the strictest injunctions not to speak a word. 

" The Ambassador, prepossessed with the idea of the 
Senator being extremely learned, thought he did not wish to 
speak. Under this impression, the Athenian, without saying a 
word, held up one of his fingers : The Fool, thinking it was a 
threat to put out one of his eyes, and remembering he was 
ordered not to speak, held up three of his ; to signify that — if 
the Grecian put out one of his eyes, he in turn would put out 
both his and with the third finger choak him. 

" The Philosopher, who, in elevating his finger, only meant 
to convey his idea of there being but one Supreme who 
governed all, — imagined that the Fool's holding up his three 
fingers was to indicate, that to God the past — the present — and 

the future were equally known ; and judged from that that 

he was a very learned man. 

" After this, he opened his hand, and showed it to the Fool, 
wishing to express that nothing was concealed from the 
Almighty : But the Fool, taking this sign portended him a 
slap on the face, presented his fist to the Philosopher, to give 
him to understand that for a slap he would give him a punch. 

" On the contrary, the Greek, already prepossessed in 
favour of the Fool, imagined that by this gesture he meant to 
say, that God held the Universe in his hand ; and, judging 
from that of the profound wisdom of the Romans, he gave 
them the Laws of Solon." 



NOTES. 251 

This story is altogether too good to be spoiled by quoting 
for it an authority that might be disputed : its paternity 
must therefor be left with the worthy Legist from whom 
it is borrowed. 

Note 14. Sonnet xcvii. 

This circumstance, omitted by some historians, is men- 
tioned by Livy. 1. 5. c. 48. and Floras. 1. 1. c. 13. 

Note 15. Sonnet ci. 

This ingenious idea has been made familiar to us by the 
lively Munchausen. But who claims the merit of its original ? 
Mr. Southey, in his Omniana, has quoted it from a Portuguese 
periodical antecedent to the Baron : and it is to be found in an 
English writer older still. By the way, no allusion is made to 
the fact by our late Northern Explorers : Is there more in 
Nature's Philosophy than they dreamed of? 

Note 16. Sonnet ciii. 

"We must suppose our poor Poet to have here been so dis- 
tracted with his debt as to forget the existence of the Flying- 
Fish. Unless indeed he was as incredulous about it as the old 
West-Country Woman of whom Jack tells ; who, on his 
relation of the wonders of the Sea and of the West-Indies, 
admitted the possible existence of "mountains of sugar and 
rivers of rum :" But, added she rhythmically — 

" For fishes that flee — 

" That never can be." 
It was no doubt this same sceptical Granny, who, when Jack 
was telling her of the hardships of a sea life, shrewdly observed 
that it could not be a very laborious one, since " Sailors had 
only to sit on their seats and let the wind blow them along." 

Note 17. Sonnet civ. cxxxii. cxl. cxcii. 
Orlando Furioso. canto 34. 



252 



NOTES. 



Note 18. Sonnet cxiv. 

This alludes to the custom, common in Roman Catholic 
Countries (and which is of Pagan origin) of presenting votive 
offerings at the shrine of the Virgin Mary, or any Patron 
Saint, for benefits assumed to have been received thro their 
intercession, such as recovery in sickness or other escape from 
danger, and mostly after a promise or vow to that effect. 
These are generally representations, whether in painting or 
sculpture, of the circumstances in question : they are for the 
most part sufficiently curious ; and, however good their motive, 
sometimes not very edifying. 



Note 19. Sonnet cxv. 

One of the Laws of The Twelve Tables "De Debitores 

in partes secando." 



Note 20. Sonnet cxxvi. 

This was written on hearing some music. Plato, in the 
tenth book of his Republic, gives a most whimsical hypothesis 
on " Celestial Music," — imagining the Heavens to be subdivided 
into eight revolving concentrical circles ; on each whereof 
presides a Syren, diffusing her own modulated tones around, 
and all uniting in a common harmony. Plutarch speaks of 
this theory in his Treatise on Music. See also the Somnium 
Scipionis (sect. 5) wherein Cicero follows Pythagoras, for a 
beautiful fancy on the " Music of the spheres." 

There are even Philosophers of our own day, who enter- 
tain the notion of a sonorous fluid pervading all space and 
creating such ethereal harmony. But this has always been a 
favourite notion : and indeed seems founded on those aspira- 
tions after higher and better things, that are an evidence at 
once of the capacity of the soul for their enjoyment and of its 
being destined to possess them. 



NOTES. 253 

Note 21. Sonnet cxxviii. 

Some of the dialects of Latin origin, as the French, Italian, 
and others, seem to have been at one time distinguished by 
their Affirmative Particle ; an instance of which still exists in 
the name of that part of France called Languedoc. So the 
Provencal Minstrels, and the Romance-writers of more 
Northern France, have respectively been called "Poets of 

Oc," and " Prosers or Prosewriters of OuL" In Menage's 

Origines de la Langue Francaise, however, are some different 
and conflicting etymologies about the name of Languedoc ; some 

deriving it from Langue Gothe Gothic, and others from 

Langue oV Occident Western. Let us not presume to decide 

when Linguists disagree. But (as suggested by a wag at our 
elbow) whatever be the Tongue of that same, there is no doubt 
but that the true Land of Oc (now more aspirated — after, 
"Roc erat in votis") is— not France at all_but Germany. 

The Germanic Nations again agree in the common use of 
To or Ya for their Affirmative. And Italy is called by Dante 
(Inferno, cap: 33. v. 80.) 

" H bel paese la dove il Si suona" 

See this not uninteresting subject treated at length likewise 

in Dante De la Volgare Eloquenzia. 1. 1. c. 8 which is almost 

the text of our Sonnet, and c. 10. Also in Fontanini Delia 
Eloquentia Italiana. c. 30. Sismondi's Literary History, vol. i. 
p. 38. 270. and Dr. Moore's Essay on the Origin of Romance 
of the South of Europe. 

The "Vulgar Tongue" {Lingua volgare) is the oral or 
common idiom of Italy, corrupted from the Latin ; so called 
to distinguish it from its original, formerly that of letters 
and the learned. 

Note 22. Sonnet cxxix. 

In these days of novelty and enterprize, when several 
distinct arms of the Ocean . have already been united, and no 
less is contemplated than a junction of the Atlantic and Pacific 
seas, it is not uninteresting to look back at similar projects of 



254; NOTES. 

former ages. The separation of the Corinthian isthmus (as that 
of Suez) has been frequently attempted, by some of the greatest 
names in antiquity, and equally in vain. Notwithstanding 

the failure of Alexander J. Caesar and others, it was lastly 

undertaken by Nero, with no better success. See Pausanias. 
1. 2. c. 1. also Univ. Hist. vol. 5. p. 566. London. Fol: 1740. 
Charlemagne, who for his age really deserved the title of 
"great," had projected a junction of the German Ocean and 
the Black Sea by uniting the Danube with the Rhine ; and 
actually began operations for the thing, but desisted on 
finding it impracticable. Science, however, has since given 
so much more means of overcoming its difficulties, and 
the hands as well as the human mind are so much more 
free than in his time, that the scheme is now really within 
the line of probability. 

With respect to the first-mentioned project — if ever that 
takes place, — it will be, not by what is generally imagined the 
most obvious way — the River Chagres at the Isthmus of 

Darien, but farther North by the Lake of Nicaragua; the 

country there, tho the space to be crossed is much wider, 
affording much greater facilities than at the former point. 
This indeed would be an immense feat ; and seems one well 
worthy of British enterprize and capital, and not to let us 
be anticipated in it by our North- American Brethren. 



Note 23. Sonnet cxxx. 

So B. Jonson (in his 'Discoveries') says — " For, what never 

was will not easily be found not by the most curious." 

There certainly is something satisfactory in such propositions 
as these : for they neither admit of dispute nor leave any thing 
to be explained or desired. 



Note 24. Sonnet cxxxii. 
Orlando Furioso. canto 15 passim. 



NOTES. 255 



Note 25. Sonnet cxlviii. 

" Campidoglio." The modern name for the Capitol of 
Rome. Some of the learned have considered this word to be 
formed from Campo d'oglio, i. e. the Field of oil or Oil-market ; 
and are correspondingly indignant at the degradation. But 
there seems no reason to go so far for an etymology ; because, 
in the first place, there is no evidence of its ever having been 
used specially for that purpose ; and, nextly, it is a very 
obvious corruption of the proper name. 

Note 26. Sonnet cl. 

This of course refers to the dress worn by Gentlemen or 
comme il faut persons at the time when it was written. The 
" mantle" and the " toupee" have long since given way even 
in Italy to the universal coat and crop. 

Note 27. Somiet civ. 

Small coin, current in Italy in the early part of the 
last century. 

Note 28. Sonnet clxiv. 

The Roman Sestertms (the lesser Sesterce) worth nearly 
three half-pence of our money, is here to be distinguished from 
the Sesteitium (the greater) whose value corresponds to about 
£8. sterling. So that our worthy Poet would have required 
about nine Sestertw to liquidate his debt. 

Note 29. Sonnet clxxxvi. 

The loves of Hercules were so numerous, far exceeding even 
his labours, that it is not easy to determine who was the God- 
dess here meant, this title being applied to female Deities in 
general of whatever order. Autonae, who had made him the 
father of Palsemon — one of the individuals here mentioned, 
being a Nereid, is not unlikely to be the lady in question. 



256 NOTES. 



Note 30. Sonnet exc. 

Byzantium (according to some writers) was founded by the 
Spartans, and thus might naturally be equally sparing of 
words. On another occasion Philip, having invaded Laconia, 
proposed some terms to the Lacedemonians, to which the only 
answer he could obtain was " NO." 

Note 31. Sonnet cxci. 
" But he throws down a mirror in her path." 

An authority for this manner of throwing a tiger or tigress 

(certainly rather the lady) at fault may be found in iEsop. 

Another mode of effecting it has been mentioned, namely — 
putting a lOoking-glass in such a situation as that the animal 
shall break it ; and, seeing itself reflected in all the fragments, 
take fright at the multiplication of itself it has thus conjured 
up and make off. These stratagems are not explained at 
length in any modern book of field-sports : Tho they are 
alluded to by Somerville in his Chase. III. 291—307. 

Note 32. Sonnet cxciii. 

Personages in the Orlando Furioso. What follows is not 
too much to say of his fame : however troublesome a fellow, 
Chrysophilus will live as long as his language. 



APPENDIX 



BURTHEN OF THE SONNETS 

OMITTED BY THE AUTHOR AND REPUBLISHED IN THE PARIS EDITIONS. 

No. 

201. The Poet hath a vision of Parnassus. 

202. He sees Hades, but no torment there equal to his Dun. 

203. Tells his Dun he is the most ill-omened of Birds. 

204. Asks him how he came not to be one of the plagues of Egypt. 

205. Laments the speed of his Dun in ever following him. 

206. Promises Charon the Three Groats on ferrying his Dun over the Styx. 

207. On squaring accounts with his Dun he finds himself Creditor. 

208. Tells his Dun he is Creditor to an Insolvent. 

209. Shows how his Creditor's voice would be an irresistible weapon. 

210. Complains that some Pet Birds have learned to dun him. 

211. He proposes to his Dun to pay him with Sonnets. 

212. Compares him to Hercules, whom he would have less feared. 

213. Transmogrifies himself to a Bird, but is outwitted by his Dun. 

214. Likens him to a Husbandman uselessly tilling a barren soil. 

215. Requests Neptune, Vulcan, and Pluto, to knock down his Dun. 

216. Mars and Love bid him have done with the Three Groats. 



258 THE THREE GROATS. 



201. 



What time, prolonging our accnstom'd day, 
The Sun above the burnt-up pole fierce glows, 
As late, my limbs reclining for repose, 
I yielded me to Morpheus' gentle sway,__ 

The laurell'd Hill appear'd in bright display, 
Where Aganippe's lucid current flows ; 
And hitherwards advancing, as it rose, 
A train of learned Sages throng'd the way. 

With curious looks awhile, or ere they spoke, 
The gifted band their eyes towards me turned, 
And, seeing me there, in open laughter broke. 

At length — " This is (said they) the moonstruck Wight, 
" Who, for Three Groats most dreadfully concerned, 
" Distils and racks his brain both day and night." 



202. 

Within A vermis' depths of blackest night 
A fiend of hideous guise me passive bore. 
When, fearless there arriving to explore, 
A tragic scene was offer'd to my sight 

Tisiphone I saw, without affright, 

Megara Alecto, with unnumber'd more ; 

Who scourge the manes on the infernal shore, 
With all dread Pluto's wrath and vengeful might. 

There monsters— hydras — gorgons met my eye ; 
With all that barbarous cruelty invents, 
And grief — despair — and horror's mingled sway. 

But to them turning, — " 'Pon my soul ! (said 1) 
" There here is nothing that in any way 
" Torments one as the Three Groats' Dun torments. 



THE THREE GROATS. 259 



203. 



The bird of night with his lugubrious cry 

I know's a most ill-omen'd sound to hear, 
And ever wont to cause misboding fear 
To our old simple-soul'd antiquity : 

What time a flight of Ravens sail the sky, 
Can ne'er betoken good where they appear ; 
And, when the howl of Wolves assails the ear, 
Dread pain and sorrow follow by-and-by. 

But what affrights me more than all (and now 

Believe me Dun of the Three Groats ! ) I say — 

Is a disgusting Crow, and such art thou. 

Thou'rt ever at my heels ; still close thou clingest ; 
And, with a clamour worse than Stork or Jay, 
To me eternal evil-omen bringest. 

204. 

Howe'er ill off or wretched we may be, 
There's this consideration to supply 
A solace, — that (as no one will deny) 
Things might be worse, in kind as in degree. 

For instance — what a lucky thing for me 
It is, 'midst all my miseries, that I 
Was born beneath a European sky, 
And not beyond the Red or Yellow Sea : 

For — were, 'stead this, Quinsai my native place, 
And near enough my Creditor could get 
A circle round about me there to trace, 

Once in that ring f their law so Polo quotes] 
I fain should be to liquidate my debt 
And nilly-willy pay him his Three Groats. 

*** Substituted for the Original. See " Sketch, etc:" p. xxv 

R 2 



260 THE THREE GROATS. 



205. 

Ye, my complaints who hear ! ah ! could ye know 
The secret sorrow that my bosom fills, 
Perhaps some kind compassion for my ills 
Would move your own with sympathetic wo : 

A clamorous Dun's for ever at my heels ; 
Just as a dog his master follows, so 
He winds and traces me where'er I go ; 
No hound, I'm certain, more acutely smells : 

Whatever place I go to there he is ; 

And, while avoiding him, the more I meet ; 
And still he follows in my track like this. 

No stag nor hare was ever such a racer : 
With him should Atalanta run a heat, 
She'd swear that Satan helps him to outpace her. 

206. 

Among our heathen ancestors, of yore, 
A pious custom was in use ('tis said)— 
To put a piece of money, less or more, 
Within the bier — or fingers of the dead ; 

That, when arriving at the Stygian shore, 

. The coin should help them, to the boatman paid, 
With greater ease on that donation's score 
To cross the infernal river nor be stay'd. 

If thou, my Dun ! within not many days 
Should' st make thy exit, by my faith ! I swear — 
And by my debt ! that, without more delays, 

Trust me, I shall be ready for thee (when, 
Namely — what time I go and find thee there) 
To pay the due Three Groats to Charon then. 



THE THREE GROATS. 261 

207. 

At length, Chrysopliilus ! I'll thee repay : 
The house is near at hand, let's go in there : 
But our accounts first promise me to square, 
And then will I the Three Groats' deht defray. 

My loss of time I'll reckon — many a day, 
Pen — ink — and paper, Sonnets on the affair, 

Oil — candles spectacles, and eke a pair 

Of sleeves worn-out by leaning on that way ; 

Gunpowder for the chase pounds not a few, 

Shoe-leather used in 'scaping from thy ken ; 
Besides a doorbell's cost in full amount 

One day thou brak'st it, and I bought a new. 
With equity and justice acting then, 
Thou should'st the balance place to my account. 

208. 

At early dawn to walk I sometimes go, 

Still thinking thee, my Creditor ! about ; 

And in my mind the thought is rooted so, 

That nothing possibly can drive it out. 
Now what the devil thou'st done me, I don't know, 

I only know where'er I turn my foot, 

The old Three Groats still haunt me high and low, 

Which I'd retribute thee_but have them not. 
But thou, amidst an hundred daily cares, 

Dost rack thy brain to squeeze the money from : 

And, should the Debtor break, the account who squares ? 
So thy misfortune's much the worst of any, 

In being a Creditor, and then to whom ? — 

To one who's never worth a single penny ! 



262 THE THREE GROATS, 

209.(4) 

Should Prussia's Sovereign muster in array 
Innumerous legions of such men as I, 
Or England's Monarch keep the like in pay, 
The Emperor would defeat them and defy : 

For, in the field amidst the bloody fray, 
Should he set up aloud this dreadful cry — 
Oh Debtor ! pat/ me my Three Groats. Straightway 
The hostile armies would turn tail and fly. 

That sound puts me in such a horrid fright, 

The Titans e'en — when from the empyreal height 
Jove thunder'd them — were not in so much fear : 

The ill-omen'd tone has such terrific might, 
It rings perpetually within my ear ; 
Yea dead as 'live I'd hear it_day or night. 

210. 

Its every keenest shaft, to swell my wo, 
Against me Fate has aim'd ! Alas ! unblest : 

What doom awaits me, since however so — 

No pity penetrates my Dun's cold breast ? 

All ! listen to my sorrows : well I know 
Are fled for aye my happiness and rest ; 
Where seek them now — where find them here below. 
Since e'en at home he tracks me to molest ? 

A Parrot and a Magpie late I bought, 
Awhile from these sad miseries to free me ; 
But torments worse than any have they brought : 

The incident was fatal ; for, one day, 

What time my Creditor had come to see me, 
They learn'd to dun me the Three Groats to pay ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 263 



211. 



Oh dear Tormentor ! could'st thou not one day 
Mind thine own business — unconcern'd 'bout me 1 
Thou surely must the uselessness now see 
Of teasing me — with nought wherewith to pay. 

Thou'rt o'er importunate : nor can I say 
What title may be best befitting thee. 
Thou'dst drive me crazy : but, howe'er it be, 
I'll not grow crazy for Three Groats, no way. 

Then chirrup day and night, for aught I care : 
Thou'lt get no money out of him wh' has none ; 
An wilt have Sonnets from me here they are : 

So to thy deathless glory shall be said, 
Ne'er boasted yet 'mong Duns by any one, — 
" Thro special favour thus his debt was paid." 

212. 

Unmatch'd Alcides ! who didst erst astound 
The world with wondrous feats in many a feud ; 
Who didst explore Avernus' deepest bound, 
And crush the Hydra—spite his heads renewed ! 

Beneath thy formidable club renown'd, 
The Erymanthean monster fell subdued : 
Nor any has in modern times been found 
With prowess comp'rable to thine endued. 

Thy deathful arm it was such terror brought 
To people's hearts : yet ne'er thy voice alone 
Could have perform'd what that dread dexter wrought. 

Excuse me : but there's still a stouter one, 

Who instantly can kill me dead as stone 

With merely asking for his Thrice a Groat. 



264 THE THREE GROATS. 

213. 

Great Jove ! one favour from thee I beseech : 
Pray give me wings, that I may freely go 
Athwart ethereal space, beyond the reach 
Of my Three Groats' Dun, and avoid him so. 

Thou grant' st the boon : and from my shoulders each 
I joyful see the feather'd pinions grow : 
I fear no more : for now, retaining speech, 
My face and form a Bird's appearance show. 

Ah fleeting joys — howe'er with promise big ! 

When most I thought to seize them in this shape, 
My Dun grows metamorphos'd to a twig : 

And, while I fancied to repose me there, 

"In vain (he cried) thou from me would? st escape: 
" In spite of thee III follow everywhere" 

214. 

When some exhausted ground dries up at last, 
Nor rain descends to irrigate the soil, 
In vain the Husbandman with efforts vast 
Works night and day, — no crops reward his toil : 

And, should consuming heat still scorch and broil, 
It never can produce as in times past ; 
Till, grown a barren waste, his cares to foil, 
It yields but weeds and tares of worthless cast. 

So, Dun ! it happens thee : and thou, still worse, 
Who merciless deniest me rain and dew, 
Can nothing more expect to reimburse. 

But thou'rt a precious zany like to few, 

Who fanciest thus — where nothing ever grew — 
To elicit the Three Groats therefrom by force ! 



THE THREE GROATS. 265 



215. 



Who e'er such wretchedness was doom'd to know 
As mine, who always have about my way 
That plague — who gives me respite night nor day — 
Nor e'er will let me have repose below ! 

Oh Neptune ! would'st some pity for me show, 

Whene'er he duns me — or desires to pay 

Or the Three Groats requires me to defray, 
Do give him with thy trident a good blow. 

Or, Vulcan ! with thy hammer knock him down. 
And, Pluto ! take below with thee to Hell : 
For only then I peace and rest shall have. 

So troublesome a rogue was never known : 
For — even dead and buried — know I well 
You'll hear him cry still louder from his grave. 

216. 

At noontide's sultry hour, in pensive plight, 
Where roaming I a leafy arbour found, 
To put awhile my gloomy thoughts to flight, 
I stretch'd my limbs along the shady ground : 

My lyre down-laid, in sleep oblivious bound — 

Mine eyes were closed, — when present to my sight 
Lo Mars and Love appear'd and angry frown'd, 
My conscious breast all trembling with affright. 

Mars took the lyre ; and, as towards him turned, 
To Love consign' d, and to me thus he said — 
" Fool ! what of thee will Cyrrha say for this ? 

" Henceforth these follies leave : such trifles spurned, 
" Expel them from thy mind : and, that debt paid, 
" The Creditor of the Three Groats dismiss." 



TABLE 



SONNETS. 



No. 
Naples 
Edit: 

148. A certain lover of the antique one day. 
198. A man of squeaking voice and middle age. 

161. A man, who always doth with patience hear. 
155. A proclamation 's issued, it appears. 
101. About the'pole, stern winter raging"*round. 
137. According to the various properties. . 
176. Adorning when her hair with flowers among. 

GG. Algiers, and Tunis, Tripoli, Sale. 
86. All bodies, it is true, do not possess. 
143. Among the old philosophers Greece had. . 

Among our heathen ancestors, of yore. 
120. An old ill-temper'd master's ways to bear. 
22. As doth some wretched City weep and wail. 
16. As erst Orestes, who, when he had slain. . 
100. As one, that long imprisonment endured. 
106. As was the golden apple, that, one day. 
41. As, with a searching virtue to imbue. 
At early dawn to walk I sometimes go. 
At length, Chrysophilus ! I'll thee repay. . 
At noon-tide's sultry hour, in pensive plight. 
172. Behold that knot of flowers, so fresh and fair. 
188. Bleak winter's reign henceforth is past and o'er. 
187. Blows Aquilo, the atmosphere now chills. 

162. But I, by reason of the fact, do say. 
83. But let's not be discouraged, come what will. 
78. But, 'mong all these, my Three Groats' Dun, I say. 
80. But, when my Dun's determined to say N~o. 
20. Cease, angry winds ! to urge your furious fray. 

Pr: Come, ye, with poverty's besetting sin ! 
134. Chrysophilus engages in a day. 
156. Chrysophilus, his other parts among. 

163. Chrysophilus ! what vails it night and day. 
118. Chrysophilus, who, like a common lover. 

48. Debt is not a disease, to make one sick. « 



No. 

Paris 

Edit: 

143 

198 

141 

135 

81 

118 

176 

46 

54 

123 

206 

100 

159 

153 

76 

90 

21 

208 

207 

216 

172 

188 

187 

142 

63 

70 

72 

157 

114 

13G 

143 

98 

28 



268 



TABLE OF THE SONNETS. 



No. 

Naples 

Edit: 

167. Do not be wroth, if on thy beauteous face. 
185, E'er since thy beauteous image in my heart. 

181. Fair Nisa ! now I'm near thee, to review. 
37. From far returning to his native town. 
46. Good Creditor ! do tell me what's the use. 

182. Great Bacchus! what delights thy fountains pour, 
Great Jove ! one favour from thee I beseech. 

Ep : Hail, fellow Rhymsters all ! be of good cheer. 
147. Happy the Merchant, who, in any place. . 
184. Hark, Osmin ! quick as e'er you can, forthwith. 

25. Hast ever seen the Father be away. 
3. Hence, dreams or fables ! hence : others before. 
Her every keenest shaft, to swell my wo. 
However ill off or wretched we may be. . 

49. However keen, all pleasures pall with use. 
107. I always for infallible will hold. 

77- I'm very certain, and have long opined. 
165. I assure thee, Creditor ! so do believe. 

13. I do protest I cannot tell if from. 

45. I dreamt to be, a night or two ago. . 

99. If an attack of fever I should feel. . 
104. If Dedalus could to his sides unite. 
171. If e'er, beside the river's verdant marge. 
1 77. If ever, Nisa ! I regain that same. . 
153. If I go where, with hurdle — stake — or net. 

72. If on the legs — arms throat or on the face. 

29. I, foolishly who some time since did boast. 

52. If possibly, as some there are suppose. 

98. I frequently have heard it said, by those. 
111. I frequently revolve within my mind. 
126. I had a dream of such terrific hue. . 
144. I've often heard it said of Cicero. 

65. I've seen a savage race, that faith have none. 

10. I've told thee good an hundred times and more 
164. I kept some antient coin in a bureau. 

33. I never shall be able to forget. 
2. In my more verdant and vivacious age. 
130. In rhrygia erst there was a king, they say. 



No. 

Paris 
Edit: 



TABLE OF THE SONNETS. 



269 



No. 
Naples 
Edit: 

60. In Pluto's realms a streamlet gently flows. 
115. In very antient times, imposed by might. 

47. I recollect t'have in some Rabbi read. 
178. I saw it lighten several times at noon. 
149. It never was a good man's act to do. 
123. Just as a cauldron or a kettle does. . 
121. King Attalus's treasures I not want. 
200. Last night, within my chamber while immured. 

12. Let folk say what they will, here is the man. 
151. Let Fortune arm herself to work me wo. 
1 . Let others sing his pious deeds and bold 

85. Let those, who will, attraction's force maintain. 

44. Lover of freedom, that I've always been. 
186. Lo where the boatman to the water side. 

35. Man ne'er was happy yet in any stage. 

7. 'Mong those whose skin is by the sun embrown'd. 

180. Must I then still behold each lad each lass. 

140. My Creditor does not those weapons wear. 

8. My Creditor has nought to wonder at. 

96. My Creditor is frequently inclined. 

97. My Creditor, observing me display . 
132. My Creditor upon me came one day. 
113. My Creditor with me has often got. . 
119. My dear Chrysophilus ! it is the case. 
168. My Nisa, ne'er reproach me on that score. 
173. My Nisa's image erst was wont to be. 
158. No warrior brave is he, tho bearing arms. 

95. Nor were this glorious custom, I denote. . 
26. Not Priam with such pleasure did exult. . 

136. Now stomach up now with his mouth turn'd down. 

77- Now, friends ! I bid you all a kind farewell. 
42. Now that in fierce hostilities and jar. 

54. Now from us the bright sun departs away. 
76. Now, then, Ergastes ! learn that I intend. 

55. Oh ! balmy sleep ! beneath whose healing wings. 

61. Oh blissful days, what time Queen Bertha spun 
Oh dear tormentor ! couldst thou not one day. 

125. Oh Heaven defend me ! what a frightful dream. 



No. 
Paris 
Edit: 

40 
95 
27 
178 
129 
103 
101 
200 
150 
131 

53 

24 

186 

15 

144 

180 

121 

145 

68 

73 

112 

93 

99 

168 

173 

138 

* 79 

164 

117 

154 

22 

34 

78 

35 

41 

211 

105 



270 



TABLE OF THE SONNETS, 



No. 
Naples 
Edit: 

133. Oil labour lost ! vain foolishness of man. . 

70. Oh my Chrysophilus ! from some time past. 
19. Oh novel and felicitous event I 

68. Oh well for me, that of fair Italy's land. . 
64. One day I to a Limner thus " I want." . 

127- One day, just to discuss the point herein. . 
40. One day, the while his flock about him grazed. 
194. Perhaps that some will blame me in this thing. 
146. Perhaps thou canst not live without me : heh ? 
124. Perhaps, when Mahomet ruled Arabia erst. 
138. Perish the Man, among us first, I say. 

89. Philosophers hold that — if in one place. . 
23. Postman ! are any letters there for me ? . 

62. Propitious Heaven ! assist me, and withal. 

82. Rejoice with me, my friends ! for I have found. 

179. Rise, Elpin ! quit thy pillow ; for behold. 

170. Seven times hath now the Sun left Ganges' shoi 

63. Should Death not play me such a scurvy trick. 
9. Should Heaven afflict me with the most severe. 

Should Prussia's monarch muster in array. 

87. Should some one question of the famous sages. 
193. Should'st thou do greater feats than either or. 

21. Since that Chrysophilus is gone from this. 

32. Since, Creditor ! you hunt me thus and chase. . 

14. Since that the air, which I inhale this land on. 
160. So, thou'lt not sue me those Three Groats to pay 
1 90. Superfluous prolixity of clack. 
169. That bear's cub, Nisa ! which, the other day. 

71. That " Charity begins at home" is true. 
30. That debt's an evil there can be no doubt. 

69. That from all bodies an effluvium goes. 

58. That spirit of pure blood, most active clear. 

67. That, which erewhile held such impetuous sway 
73. The Bird, when from afar some Hawk he views 

The Bird of night, with his lugubrious cry. 
110. The devious comet, that on high careers. . 

90. The false Pashah turns pale with guilty fears. 

88. The fearful hare, or kid, when from the brake 



TABLE OF THE SONNETS. 



271 



No. 
Naples 
Edit: 

15. The gadfly does not such a plague become. 
114. The Mariner, who ploughs the distant sea. 
112. The Nag, that ever has the spur in's sides. 
117. The Pilgrim, who 'mong woods has lost his way. 
129. The prudent Chief, both art and force who tries. 
103. The rapid rivers first shall backwards flow. 
174. The secret love, conceal'd within my heart. 
109. The Smith his ponderous hammer lifts, and shakes. 
108. The stupid Shaver, that on Midas eyed. . 
141. The tennis-ball, that 'gainst the wall is thrown. 
157. The ternary number always seems, if scanned. . 
1 28. The tongue of Oc, so call'd unto this day. 
1 05. The Traveller, that, on foot — unarni'd and lone. 

75. The true regard, that for me you display. 

34. The whispering breeze that speaks in softest breath. 

59. Thence 'tis I recollect the hour and day. . 

166. There's now no louger a hope howe'er so faint. 

154. These maxims hear — I give thee, to direct. 

196. These tuneful plaints, I to the winds disperse. . 
185. This is the fatal spot, Sir ! where one day. 

159. Thou'rt in a passion with me, and would'st know. 

39. Thou askest me for money : and I've none. 
131. Thou says't that no one hitherto has found. 
135. Thou think'st that I am angry with thee now. . 
5. Time was an ardent thirst for noble fame. 

57. 'Tis natural my dreams should take their hues. 

24. 'Tis stated there are persons who have brewed. 

94. To hide me from my Creditor's sharp view. 

36. Unconscious Child ! that in thine early spring. 
Unmatch'd Alcides ! who didst erst astound. 

197. Unwise is he, that in the cheerful days. 
84. Vain wishes and illusive hopes they feel. . 

122. "What ignorance and folly they betray. 
183. What means within me this unwonted glow. 
53. What nonsense is maintain'd by those and these. 
116. What sounds are these, nor that to earth belong. 
139. What thinkest on, my Dun ! that thus unnerved. 
What time, prolonging our accustomed day. 



No. 

Paris 

Edit: 

146 

94 

88 

97 

109 

83 

174 

85 

92 

116 

137 

108 

89 

67 

14 

39 

166 

134 

193 

185 

139 

19 

111 

115 

5 

37 

161 

66 

16 

212 

197 

64 

102 

183 

33 

96 

120 

201 



272 



TABLE OF THE SONNETS. 



No. 
Naples 

Edit: 

142. What time, his first, the unpractised Sailor hears. 

38. What time I pensive stand, some Bird to view. 

43. What time the People, by their debts weighed down. 

91. AVhat time the Sun, when fiercest and most strong. 
192. What will not, to be talk'd about one day. 

195. When autumn rain falls overnight, and from. . 

18. When Father Tiber heard the noisy lays. 

56. When, for more peaceful days and calm repose 
191. When from her den the Tigress, mad with wrath. 
189. When in the world's primeval age, 'mong Men. 

93. When sombre melancholy me invades. 

When some exhausted ground dries up at last. 

31. When there's an act one very often does. 

50. Whether it be some diabolic spell. . 

11. Whether of lovely Nymphs I be the guest. 

92. While bright thy days shall shine, all calm and clear 

51. While Echo asks me the Three Groats to pay. 
150. While in such sombre colours I display. . 

28. While sorrow ne'er afflicted me, and while. 
81. Who doth the hungry's empty stomach fill. 
4. Who'd e'er believe that hard and arid stone. 
Whoe'er such wretchedness was doom'd to know. 
199. Whoe'er the voice of my lament has heard. 
102. Whoever to the light-diffusing rays. 
152. With brow of deepest gloom, and awful tone 
Within Avernus' depths of blackest night. 
G. Without that pleasing and sublimest gift. 

Ye, my complaints who hear ! ah ! could ye know. 
27. Ye, that have heard my sorrowful lament. 
79. You, that are so well versed in logic's art. 
74. Your letter, my Ergastes ! duly got. 



No. 

Paris 

Edit: 

122 

18 

28 

59 

192 

196 

155 

3G 

191 

189 

65 

214 

30 

149 

60 

31 

130 

8 

61 

4 

216 

199 

82 

132 

202 

6 

205 

7 

71 

77 



The End. 



London. Harrison and Co. Printers St MartixV Lank, 



£S^- 







^ " r ^ 



c 



.-*? 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2008 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

















>^ 










